COLUMN | Renewable energy finally sails off into the past: why wind and solar power for ships won’t suffice on their own [An Innocent Australian] 

The fact is that wind propulsion of commercial vessels has been, and continues to be, investigated for ships. You will see a variety of ships with rigid sails, Flettner rotational masts and sails with solar panels, the best reported to be reducing emissions by 10 per cent over the total voyage. None of these solutions are yet commercially realistic for production designs, but they do tick the box for the company’s corporate image in window dressing, striving towards the hallowed zero emissions.Global shipping contributes three per cent of global emissions, the activists may scream, but it carries 95 per cent of our global freight and activists should be promoting shipping instead of road freight, which generates 20 to 40 times the emissions per tonne/kilometre. Australia, for instance, whose coastal highways carry most of the nation’s freight and coastal shipping, does not exist because it doesn’t attract votes. Never mind the 1,300 road deaths and 18,000 serious road accidents that occur annually around Australia’s coastal highways. The fools steering the nation need replacing.