Harnessing the available wind energy requires skilled seafarers that understand the working principles of these technologies and can adapt and improve existing navigation and ship handling procedures accordingly.
Experience from the ship SC Connector shows that the harnessed power of their Flettner rotor system can vary between 0-10 MW for a specific wind condition - depending on the crew’s ability to operate the rotors and ship.
Considering the rapidly growing interest and adoption of wind-propulsion technology – and the foreseen doubling of WAPS vessels every year for the next decade, the required WAPS-training will need to be efficient, scalable, standardised and transferable.
The project WAPS-IT, launched by Seatrans and Stödig Ship Management, in collaboration with ship owner Odfjell Management, acknowledges the essential role of seafarers and operators for implementing new technologies towards the decarbonisation of shipping. The 3-year innovation project in industry (IPN), co-funded by the Research Council of Norway, will contribute to the development of necessary maritime competence for optimal and safe operation of WAPS ships.
The expected outcomes are:
- An extensive curriculum, competence matrix and training need specification.
- Ship-specific and generic training programme for ships with WAPS.
- Proposal of industry standard for an internationally accredited training programme for ships with WAPS.
- Input to STCW convention.
- Requirement specification for training simulator for WAPS.
Top photos: “SC Connector”, courtesy of Sea-Cargo, and “Bow Olympus”, courtesy of Odfjell (photographer: Ruben Soltvedt).
The consortium:
