Bristol-based maritime engineering start-up WingTek, in collaboration with the National Composites Centre and the University of Bristol, has won a \u00a32.2m innovation grant.<\/p>\n
The funding from Innovate UK has been awarded under the Department for Transport’s clean maritime demonstration competition.<\/p>\n
It is to develop further the WingTek Wingsail, a unique Wind Auxiliary Propulsion (WAP) system designed to be retrofitted easily to existing commercial vessels.<\/p>\n
Wind Auxiliary Propulsion is a technology that complements existing ship propulsion systems, enabling significant reductions in fuel use and therefore harmful emissions from these ships.<\/p>\n
Neil Richards, WingTek’s managing director, said: \u201cWingTek\u2019s innovative Wind Auxiliary Propulsion system has received a significant boost thanks to the help and support of Innovate UK leading to this grant.<\/p>\n
“We are delighted to be working with a fantastic set of project partners at the University of Bristol and the National Composites Centre and we are now well supported to fast-track the development on the route to commercial production.\u201d<\/p>\n
The project will deliver two full-size operational prototypes, one on-shore for long-term testing and development and a second unit installed on a commercial UK vessel for sea-trials, with the project scheduled to complete by March 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Propulsion system could be retrofitted to vessels to reduce emissions <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":12361,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[120780],"coauthors":[81],"class_list":["post-12360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sustainability","tag-bristol-and-bath","tag-featured-story"],"yoast_head":"\n