Portsmouth firm's deal aims to make waves in Japanese market with low-emission marine tech
Portsmouth wind and marine engineering consultancy BAR Technologies has teamed up with Mitsubishi Corporation and Japanese ship designer Nihon Shipyard.
The three businesses will collaborate on future projects, after signing a memorandum of understanding.
This follows the successful installation of BAR Technologies’ patented wind propulsion system WindWings® onto Mitsubishi’s cargo ship Pyxis Ocean.
By joining forces, they say they will be better placed to offer low-emission vessels to the Japanese shipping industry, and see it as a way of expediting wind-assisted propulsion systems into Japanese vessel manufacturing, supplying domestic and global markets.
Drawing on their combined expertise, they aim to deliver new low-emission ships, while also identifying opportunities to integrate WindWings® into existing and new designs.
Mitsubishi will operate as an agent for WindWings® in Japan – offering Japanese owners a complete solution for wind propulsion.
BAR Technologies Chief Executive John Cooper said: “As the third-largest global shipping manufacturer, Japan has huge potential to drive positive change in the next generation of large commodities vessels.
“With a rapidly growing pipeline of WindWings® orders for vessels in other major shipping markets, the next logical stage in our journey was to seek a partnership with Mitsubishi Corporation and Nihon Shipyard, to enable customers in Japan to ensure their fleets will be compliant with global shipping emissions regulations now and into the future.”
Naoki Arima, General Manager in Ship & Infrastructure Department at Mitsubishi Corporation, said: “We recognised that a partnership with BAR Technologies and Nihon Shipyard would deliver on our aims to support the evolution of ship design and propulsion into a new low carbon paradigm.
“Having an existing, long and trustworthy relationship with BAR Technologies and its WindWings® technology, we felt the next step in the partnership was to further integrate the offer enabling us to provide more value to the industry, especially for Japanese shipping companies who are exploring ways to maintain a sustainable business.”
Nihon Shipyard Director and Chief of Design Division, Tomoaki Takahira, added: “While the shipping industry is expecting to develop low CO2 emission design, this MoU will help us accelerate for such development through collaboration works of installing WindWings® for existing and new vessel design with BAR technologies and Mitsubishi Corporation.”
