Wind-Assisted Shipping Gains Ground as Airbus RoRo Adds Rotor Sails

French shipowner LD Armateurs has completed the installation of six towering rotor sails aboard Spirit of Toulouse, a new roll-on/roll-off vessel being built to transport aircraft components for Airbus across the Atlantic.

The installation, completed at a shipyard outfitting site in Shanghai, makes the 168-meter vessel the largest RoRo ship equipped with wind-assisted propulsion and gives it more mechanical sails than any other ship, according to LD Armateurs and Finnish wind propulsion specialist Norsepower.

Each of the six rotor sails stands 35 meters tall and measures 5 meters in diameter. The rotating cylinders harness wind to generate additional thrust, reducing the