A shipping company is planning to go back to the future, by harnessing wind power to boost the propulsion of its ocean-going container ships. The "SkySail", a 160 square-metre kite tethered to a mast, has successfully undergone lengthy trial runs and now the shipowner, Beluga Shipping, of Bremen, Germany, is building the container vessel MV Beluga SkySails, equipped with one, to make its maiden voyage early next year. "I got the idea on a yacht a few years ago," Stephan Wrage, the inventor and founder of SkySails said. "I love flying kites and found sailing rather slow. I thought the enormous power in kites could somehow be utilised."
The technology he has developed is a throwback to an earlier age of maritime travel when ships relied solely on wind, but it addresses a key concern of the modern age: climate change.