DNV has released a new Recommended Practice (RP) to assess the performance of Wind-Assisted Propulsion Systems (WAPS) for public hearing.

The new RP has been developed to provide a basis for reliably determining the ability of different WAPS technologies to deliver efficiency gains when installed onboard, accelerating the maritime industry's journey towards a more sustainable future.

With some 50 systems now in operation, wind-assisted propulsion systems (WAPS) have emerged as a promising solution for the maritime industry to realise fuel savings and emissions reductions. And as shipping’s transition to more sustainable but higher cost fuels accelerates, these efficiency gains can translate into significant cost savings. 

"At DNV we have been working on WAPS installations for several years and were the first classification society to publish rules and standards to enable their deployment,” said Johanna Tranell, WAPS Performance Assessment Lead, at DNV Maritime. “But for energy efficiency technologies like WAPS to break through to wider deployment, we need the industry to be confident in their effectiveness. The new RP establishes a practical, reliable standard that helps us generate transparent, verifiable data, building trust in the potential of these systems."