AYRO wins EMFF grant to boost its wingsail tech

French wind propulsion specialist AYRO has received a grant from the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) for its wingsail project WINNEW.

As informed, the WINNEW project will include further development of the Oceanwings 363 wind-assisted propulsion system for ships to enhance the technology throughout tests and validation processes. This system is designed to enable ship owners and operators to use wind energy to improve the energy efficiency of individual vessels and fleets and cut carbon emissions.

What is more, the project aims to allow the pre-industrialization of the propulsion system and the monitoring of their performance. Under the project, the firm also plans to work on supporting the marketing and commercialization of a range of products.

The funding for the project comes from Blue Economy Window, a European Union (EU) program funded by the EMFF through the Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA). In this case, AYRO is set to receive up to €2.36 million (about $2.7 million).

The first four Oceanwings 363 will be manufactured and delivered at the end of 2022 on Canopée,
a 121-meter long roll-on, roll-off (RoRo) vessel under construction, which will be chartered by ArianeGroup.

To remind, in February this year, AYRO obtained approval in principle (AiP) for this wind-assisted propulsion system for ships from classification society DNV GL. The AiP comes on the back of 10 years of research, the first prototype in 2017, and the industrial demonstrator Energy Observer in 2019.

The project is scheduled to be finished in November 2023.