Airbus ship heads for Mobile, powered by suction sails

Chartered by Airbus, LDA ship Ville de Bordeaux has now been retrofitted with bound4blue suction sails

The decision by Airbus and Louis Dreyfus Armateurs (LDA) to install Norsepower rotorsails on their three next-generation newbuilds is just one part of the story on how the two are looking to wind-assisted propulsion to wring the carbon from Airbus’s two maritime routes.

Currently, three vessels chartered in from LDA operate on those routes — and one of these, the Ville de Bordeaux has now been retrofitted with bound4blue suction sails, in line with the LDA fleet renewal plan announced in September last year.

Following installation of the foundations for the eSails foundations in Poland in November 2023, the 5,200-dwt , 2004-built Ville de Bordeaux has now emerged from a short stopover in a shipyard in Vigo, Spain with its three brand-new, 22-meter high eSails in place. The maneuver of bringing the sails to the vertical position and connecting them to the pre-installed foundations was completed in less than two days last week.

The Ville de Bordeaux is used to transport Airbus A320 family components from Europe for final assembly at the Airbus factory in Mobile, Ala. The fast installation process involved minimal downtime for the vessel. It departed Saint Nazaire in France on its maiden voyage with the eSails on March 3 and is set to arrive in Mobile in approximately two weeks.

The installation of the eSails, contributes to Airbus’ target to halve CO2 emissions from its maritime logistics operations by 2030, versus a 2015 baseline.

“The Ville de Bordeaux installation takes us one step closer to that goal. The sails look fantastic, and we look forward to seeing them in action,” said Mathieu Muzeau, transport & logistic general manager at LDA. “Along with our client Airbus we’re proud to be among the first movers in this space.”

CTO of bound4blue, David Ferrer, added: “This installation is our fourth ship project and the first of a fixed suction sail on a RO/RO vessel. “It proves that suction sails can be fitted on ships with a high weather deck and large windage area meeting all required stability criteria. We’re very grateful to LDA for their commitment to the project and for choosing the eSAILs® as a proven and affordable energy-saving solution.”

Each eSail is designed to generate six to seven times more lift than a conventional sail thanks to an electric-powered air suction system that helps the airflow to re-adhere to the sail. All this force allows for the reduction of the load on the ship’s main engines.

Meanwhile, bound4blue has also signed additional commercial agreements with several other shipowners. These include the installation of four 26-meter-high eSails on the chartered-in, 35,584-dwt juice carrier MV Atlantic Orchard (built 2014) for global agricultural trader Louis Dreyfus Company (LDC). The project, undertaken in collaboration with Wisby Tankers of Sweden, is expected to reduce annual fuel consumption and CO2 emissions by at least 10%.

In the tanker segment, Odfjell of Norway is gearing up to retrofit the eSail system this year on a chemical tanker, the first such vessel to harness the technology. Eastern Pacific Shipping of Singapore also very recently agreed to install three 22-metre eSails on its 50,332-dwt Pacific Sentinel (built 2019).

In other segments, Marubeni Corporation subsidiary MMSL Pte Ltd of Singapore is also this year set to install four 26-meter eSails on the 84,860-dwt kamsarmax bulker Crimson Kingdom (built 2016), while Tahitian shipowner SNA Thua’a Pad (SNA) has signed up to install a single 22-meter eSail on a combined cargo/passenger newbuilding it has on order in Vigo, Spain, for delivery in 2026.