Experts call for wind, solar-powered ships to cut marine pollution

Say sustainable future of Pakistan's maritime sector is in green shipping plan

KARACHI:

The engineering world should consider developing solar-powered engines to run ships, speakers said at a ceremony held at the Pakistan Marine Academy regarding World Maritime Day. The speakers said that due to the pollution caused by the oil discharge from the ships, alternative sources like solar energy have to be used to run the engines. However, the issue remains generating enough power to run the huge ships from solar energy.

The chief guests of the ceremony were General Manager KPT engineer Adnan Khalid and Commandant Commodore of PMA, Rizwan Ali, while a large number of nautical and engineering cadets of Pakistan Marine Academy participated.

The speakers said that green shipping technologies are the need of the time. They said that the sustainable future of Pakistan's maritime sector is following the green shipping plan. Partnerships, opportunities and projects are being encouraged by the government to meet climate change targets in the context of 2030/2050.

According to the experts, more than 80% of the world's trade is done by sea. In order to reduce the effects of marine pollution due to the fuel emission by ships, it is pivotal to transfer the movement of ships to solar energy.

Read more: 9,000MW solar energy planned

So far marine engineering firms have developed prototypes and models of container vessels fitted with sets of solar panels in shape of sails on both sides of the ship. The ship will get both wind propulsion and solar power according to models presented at various international forums available for study on various websites.

As per <https://www.ship-technology.com/> Eco Marine Power (EMP) had announced in 2020 that sail-assisted propulsion and solar power device for ships was ready for testing in Japan.

The EnergySail test unit was unveiled at the Onomichi Marine Tech Test Centre (MTTC) in Japan. EMP said the full-scale version of an EnergySail was an upgrade of the pre-production unit and represents one of the smaller types of EnergySail that will be put into commercial service.