MOL and Oshima Shipbuilding have jointly obtained Approval In Principle (AIP) from ClassNK (Nippon Kaiji Kyokai) for the design of a hard sail system using wind energy.
The system converts wind energy to propulsive force with telescopic hard sail, and is a fundamental technology of the Wind Challenger Project that MOL and Oshima Shipbuilding are spearheading.
The Wind Challenger Project started in 2009 with the Wind Challenger Plan, an industry-academia joint research project led by The University of Tokyo.
In January 2018, MOL and Oshima Shipbuilding took charge of the plan and now play a central role in this project
Along with other participating organizations, MOL and Oshima Shipbuilding have played a central role in research and development on the Wind Challenger Project.
The project aims to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by using wind energy.
Obtaining the AIP marks the completion of the initial design related to the sail structure and controls.

MOL and Oshima Shipbuilding will continue to move toward a detailed design and implementation for the Wind Challenger Project, with the aim to launch a newbuilding vessel equipped with a hard sail.

The hard sail would reduce the vessel’s GHG emissions by about 5% on a Japan-Australia voyage, and about 8% on Japan-North America West Coast voyage.

The long-term goal is to develop a widely accepted solution to achieve the International Maritime Organization (IMO) target in combination with other measures to reduce GHGs by equipping vessels with multiple sails.

This target is stipulated by the IMO in 2018 to reduce shipping’s total annual GHG emissions by at least 50% by 2050 compared to 2008.
Through this project, MOL and Oshima Shipbuilding will establish one of the technological choices for GHG reduction, with the objective of contributing to environmental conservation.