Accessibility links Skip to main content Keyboard shortcuts for audio player Open Navigation Menu --> Newsletters NPR Shop Get NPR+ Close Navigation Menu Home News Expand/collapse submenu for News National World Politics Business Health Science Climate Race Culture Expand/collapse submenu for Culture Books Movies Television Pop Culture Food Art & Design Performing Arts Life Kit Gaming Music Expand/collapse submenu for Music Tiny Desk New Music Friday All Songs Considered Music Features Live Sessions Podcasts & Shows Expand/collapse submenu for Podcasts & Shows Daily Morning Edition Weekend Edition Saturday Weekend Edition Sunday All Things Considered Up First Here & Now NPR Politics Podcast Featured Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me! Fresh Air Wild Card with Rachel Martin It's Been a Minute Embedded Get NPR+ More Podcasts & Shows Search Newsletters NPR Shop Get NPR+ Tiny Desk New Music Friday All Songs Considered Music Features Live Sessions About NPR Diversity Support Careers Press Ethics Shipping companies are putting sails back on cargo ships One of the world's largest logistics companies plans to fit one of its ships with a strange type of sail, the latest in a small but growing number of cleaner sailing shipping vessels. World Shipping companies are putting sails back on cargo ships September 6, 20265:06 PM ET Heard on All Things Considered By Henry Larson Shipping companies are putting sails back on cargo ships Listen · 3:56 3:56 Transcript Toggle more options Download Embed Embed "> <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5955419/nx-s1-9916141" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript One of the world's largest logistics companies plans to fit one of its ships with a strange type of sail, the latest in a small but growing number of cleaner sailing shipping vessels. Sponsor Message Transcript
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One of the world's largest shipping lines will soon be the first to equip a container vessel with a sail. This week, global logistics firm Maersk said it would fit the device on a cargo ship in 2027. It comes during a sea change for shipping and planet-warming pollution, as NPR's Henry Larson reports.
HENRY LARSON, BYLINE: Unlike the tall ships of old, shipping liners have no rigging for the wind to sing through.
(SOUNDBITE OF ROTOR SAIL SPINNING)
LARSON: Instead, the sail soon to be mounted on a Maersk vessel is more like a giant steel column. It's called a rotor sail.
(SOUNDBITE OF ROTOR SAIL SPINNING)
LARSON: The column uses an electric motor to spin really fast, like in this video from its manufacturer, Anemoi. And as the wind swirls around the rotating column, the pressure gives the vessel an extra boost.
CLARE URMSTON: This thrust can be used to either increase the vessel's speed or you can reduce the consumption of the main engine.
LARSON: That's Clare Urmston, CEO of Anemoi. The company markets their rotor sales as a way to save on fuel and reduce greenhouse gas emissions that are the primary driver of climate change. She says the sales have netted about a 10% reduction in fuel usage on average. But the global shipping industry contributes about 3% of the world's emissions, which comes out to hundreds of millions of tons a year.
URMSTON: The market is huge, but the market is just now starting to move from accepting the technology to actually thinking about scaling the technology.
LARSON: Right now, just over a hundred large vessels have some wind assist installed compared to the tens of thousands of large ships under the jurisdiction of the International Maritime Organization, which is the U.N. agency that regulates much of the world's shipping.
INGRID IRIGOYEN: Every single one of us can just look around your house right now and go every single thing pretty much came on a ship. So it's a huge scale. And the challenges - we've got a big mountain to climb.
LARSON: Ingrid Irigoyen is managing director of the Center for Green Market Activation. She's worked for years to get ship owners and the companies that charter them to embrace green fuels - power centers that would greatly limit the carbon emission from ships. She says things are tricky right now.
IRIGOYEN: The last 18 months or so have been pretty rocky for a lot of companies that I think had really strong, good intentions about decarbonizing their supply chains, decarbonizing their operations.
LARSON: Some shipping executives have joined a wider retreat from climate efforts this decade. Data from the International Chamber of Shipping shows many are less confident about hydrogen and ammonia and other new green products becoming commercially viable fuel sources.
GAVIN ALLWRIGHT: The cost of alternative fuels currently is very high.
LARSON: Gavin Allwright is head of a trade group that represents ship owners and companies operating wind technology.
ALLWRIGHT: So therefore, you've got to try to level that playing field for those new fuels. The interesting thing is, with wind propulsion, the higher price of the fuel, the better the business model is.
LARSON: He spoke with NPR from an international maritime organization meeting where members were debating future greenhouse gas regulations on shipping that could drastically alter the fate of green technology in the sector.
ALLWRIGHT: Whatever happens here, the industry is still moving forward. We've still got a strategy in place. We just don't have the tools in place to implement that.
LARSON: The Trump administration, along with several other countries, has worked to fracture support for what it calls a carbon tax. But the working group is still trying for a solution, one that International Chamber of Shipping's Chris Waddington says is needed.
CHRIS WADDINGTON: We need certainty - regulatory certainty - to be able to invest.
LARSON: The International Maritime Organization has more meetings this fall to try and decide the fate of a global standard for greener shipping. But in the meantime, the number of vessels sailing cleaner is slowly - very slowly - growing. Henry Larson, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF YO-YO MA PERFORMANCE OF JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH'S "CELLO SUITE NO 1 IN G MAJOR, PRELUDE") Copyright © 2026 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. Accuracy and availability of NPR transcripts may vary. Transcript text may be revised to correct errors or match updates to audio. Audio on npr.org may be edited after its original broadcast or publication. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record. NPR does not offer or accept money for coverage or interviews. Anyone who makes such an offer or request is not an NPR employee and does not represent NPR. Facebook Flipboard Email Read & Listen Home News Culture Music Podcasts & Shows Connect Newsletters Facebook Instagram Press Public Editor Corrections Transcripts Contact & Help About NPR Overview Diversity NPR Network Accessibility Ethics Finances Get Involved Support Public Radio Sponsor NPR NPR Careers NPR Shop NPR Extra Terms of Use Privacy Your Privacy Choices Text Only Sponsor Message Sponsor Message Become an NPR sponsor (function () { var loadPageJs = function () { (window.webpackJsonp=window.webpackJsonp||[]).push([[22],{310:function(e,n,o){o.p=NPR.serverVars.webpackPublicPath,Promise.all([o.e(1),o.e(2),o.e(3),o.e(4),o.e(80)]).then((e=>{o(15),o(769),o(155),o(176),o(93),o(447),o(254),o(128),o(130),o(754),o(175),o(755),o(255),o(78),o(773)}).bind(null,o)).catch(o.oe)},782:function(e,n,o){e.exports=o(310)}},[[782,0]]]); }; if (document.readyState === 'complete') { loadPageJs(); } else { window.addEventListener('load', function load() { window.removeEventListener('load', load, false); loadPageJs(); }); } })();