Ultramax Maria Topic Begins Sea Trials with Wingsail and Solar Retrofit
The WHISPER project is targeting around 30 percent fuel savings on a retrofitted bulk carrier
Sea trials are under way on a combined wind and solar installation retrofitted to an ultramax bulker, the first of two demonstrations in a four-year research project aimed at modular retrofit solutions for deep-sea shipping.
The project, WHISPER, has completed the installation of a rigid wingsail and solar panels on the dry bulk carrier Maria Topic. The 60,155-dwt vessel was retrofitted by Tsuneishi Shipbuilding and is currently on a trans-Pacific passage to Vancouver with the systems under test.
The installation is the first of OceanWings' tiltable rigid wingsail on a bulk carrier. It is also the final installation of Solbian's solar panels, following a prototype fitted aboard the sistership Paolo Topic in March 2024 and an expanded array added under the project in 2025.
The wingsail is intended to cut the power demanded of the main engine and with it fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, while the solar panels supply renewable electricity for onboard use and reduce the load on auxiliary generation.
With the trials the project moves from installation to evidence gathering. The trials will examine performance in real operating conditions, covering energy production, fuel savings, reliability, integration with the vessel and the consequences for routine ship and port operations. That last point matters commercially: wind-assisted systems have to coexist with cargo gear, air draught limits and terminal procedures, not just with the wind.
WHISPER, which stands for Wind Energy Harvesting for Ship Propulsion Assistance and Power, began in January 2023 and runs to December 31, 2026. It brings together 13 partners from six European countries with funding from the European Union's Horizon Europe programme, and targets around 30 percent fuel savings on a retrofitted bulk carrier and up to 15 percent on a retrofitted containership.
The containership demonstration will take place aboard a Samskip vessel, where SideWind's horizontal wind turbines and Solbian's panels are to be installed together. The turbines sit in repurposed containers with two sides removed, and the container roof provides the mounting surface for the solar array.
