Sustainable Shipping Starts at Solent

Southampton Solent University is driving maritime innovation, training and sustainability by providing world first training courses for seafarers operating wind assisted vessels—a key green technology for cutting emissions in global shipping. 

The global economy is almost completely dependent on shipping with over 12 billion tonnes of goods moved by sea each year ​, which equates to 1.5 tonnes for every person on the planet​, or 3% of global emissions​.   

Shipping goods by sea is surprisingly cheap, due to the low-cost fuel that large ships use. However, as a general rule, cheap fuel is less environmentally friendly than more refined alternatives.   

For many years, ships have operated with Heavy Fuel Oil (HFO). This thick, tar-like fuel, sometimes blended with lighter fuels, is a residual from the cracking process to obtain petroleum. It’s chemical composition results in high levels of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and particulate matter pollution, with the accompanying impact on the environment. Led by the International Maritime Organization (IMO), shipping has been moving to cleaner versions of fuels, to mitigate the impact in environmentally sensitive areas.   

This drive to cleaner fuels and the move to net-zero has been an international effort, with a goal of carbon-neutral shipping in 2050. In 2025, more stringent regulations have been developed for adoption and introduction in 2027, setting new standards and a global approach to dealing with the costs of emissions.  

Key to this is the global fuel standard – limiting the amount of overall greenhouse gas emissions, including the impact of the production and distribution of ship’s fuels based on the amount of energy used. These rules are pushing the industry to find ways of harnessing renewable energy – and at sea, the easiest one to harness is the wind.   

As a result, some ship operators are returning to wind power to help to propel their ships, allowing the crew to reduce the main engine power and emissions whilst maintaining the schedules needed to keep the global economy moving.  

The new “sails”, known as “Wind Assisted Propulsion Systems” are based on an aerodynamic principle called the Mangus Effect, which uses a large spinning cylinder, known as a Flettner Rotor, to create a driving force. Others use the equivalent of large aircraft wings, with complex systems to raise, control and lower them.   

Regardless of the systems used, this brings demands for a skill set that has largely declined or disappeared in every seafaring nation of the world – sailing skills for large vessels. Warsash Maritime School - a pioneer of maritime simulation technology, and home to specialist degrees in yacht and sailing vessel design - is delivering new courses for ship’s officers introducing, or re-introducing, the skills needed to utilise these new devices to the maximum effect - from understanding the effect of the wind to planning voyages that are not necessarily the shortest route but the most efficient.  

These technologies allow significant reductions in annual fuel use and greenhouse gas emissions – and are already in use at sea, albeit in very limited numbers. However, more vessels are in the build stage, and these rapidly evolving technologies will require new education and training capacity to upskill, plug the gaps and attract new talent in a fast-changing industry.