On a windy day, Norsepower says rotors can replace up to 50 percent of a ship's engine propulsion. Overall, the company says it can cut fuel consumption by 7 to 10 percent.

I'd like to see the initial outlay versus how long it takes to recoup that cost if their shipping prices don't change.

true that.

What's interesting to me is that they get nearly all their oil from Russia, while Norway has major oil reserves. That just seems really odd. But whatever, you know that part of this is to reduce dependence on Russian oil specifically. And, if you look at the players in the article, you'll see that the shipping company is a startup and there is another startup based in NY that is making collapsible "sails". I think that's a pretty smart thing for startups to do. These guys are planning for the future, whereas the major shipping companies are kind of tied to old technology. It would be much more difficult to retrofit a twenty year old cargo ship than build a brand new one using the technology.

it may become a little less odd.

"What's interesting to me is that they get nearly all their oil from Russia, while Norway has major oil reserves. That just seems really odd."

Finland borders on Russia. There is water and another country (Sweden) between Finland and Norway.

It's a lot cheaper to move oil (and gas) via pipelines across land than is is to move it by ship from a non-neighboring country.

And I know that there have always been tensions between Finland and Russia. Besides, Barents Sea production is right there at the border between Norway and Finland. The Finnish oil imports was just an aside. My main point is about startups.

I watched it sail out the Golden Gate "steaming" directly into the wind. I'd heard that it was visiting the San Francisco bay, and it was only a by chance I caught it from the Marin headlands as it was leaving.


This was the perspective I was looking at it, only the water was blue