Hello Pierre: I remain unconvinced. At most, I think we might see a few symbolic uses of these flettner sails, or other hard sails, because such decisions are made by the wrong people these days - for reasons of appearing to be “saving the planet” to appease the strong oppressive forces mandating such symbolic implementations. After all these years, how many ships are powered by kites, for example, versus all the stories you’ve heard for the past decade? I’d say the actual number is zero. The same will most likely happen with the flettner sails. It’s similar to the hydrogen-as-energy-storage theme - promoted by people who studied the humanities, but are unable to do even junior-high-school-level math.
I’m still wondering why, if sails are such a great idea for modern, giant steel ships, why don’t we see a single cloth sail on any such ship? Not one? After all those “news” stories? Come on - not one, right?
After what, a decade?
So the Flettner sails are that much better? As I pointed out, they are over 100 years old! Never worked out for anyone! Why would they suddenly work out now? And the latest stories are promising 95% fuel savings. Don’t you think that is laughable?
The only way any of this can be proven is with the passage of time. But, as I’ve shown with regard to all of this “press-release-breakthrough” stuff, and with AWE itself, no matter HOW much time passes, the true-believers will just keep on believing the next lying press-release, just as they believed the last 100. When I say the AWE people don’t really have a grasp of wind energy, it was at one time debatable, but after 16 years, at some point, people MIGHT start to say I was right all along, since nothing in AWE is working today. Is 16 years enough? I don’t know, you tell me. 