Kongsberg Maritime and a consortium of Norwegian maritime companies and research institutions have launched WINTEGRATE, a three-year research and innovation project focused on accelerating the adoption of wind propulsion in commercial shipping.

Announced on 2 September, the project has been awarded up to NOK 68m through Norway’s Green Platform programme, a government initiative that supports large-scale research and innovation projects with climate, environmental and industrial objectives, funded by the Research Council of Norway, Innovation Norway and Siva.

WINTEGRATE will develop technologies and methodologies to integrate wind-assisted propulsion systems (WAPS) — such as rotor sails and suction wings — with ship propulsion, power management, routing and control systems. According to the consortium, the goal is to maximise fuel savings and emissions reductions while making wind propulsion easier to implement on both existing vessels and newbuilds.

Erik Hjortland, VP Technology at Odfjell, commented: "WINTEGRATE represents an important step toward making wind propulsion a practical and scalable solution for commercial shipping. By integrating sail technologies with onboard systems, we can unlock significant emission reductions and strengthen the competitiveness of the Norwegian maritime industry."

The project will use demonstration vessels from shipping companies Odfjell SE and Seatrans to provide operational data aimed at validating technologies and supporting commercial deployment.

The consortium argues that, while wind propulsion is increasingly recognised as a decarbonisation technology, its full potential is constrained by insufficient integration with other onboard systems. WINTEGRATE aims to address this challenge through a combination of digital technologies, operational optimisation and full-scale testing.

The project will bring together wind propulsion technology with advanced control, energy management and weather routing systems. The consortium members include Kongsberg Maritime, which serves as project owner, along with SINTEF Ocean, SINTEF Digital, Odfjell SE, Seatrans, DNV, StormGeo, OsloMet, Norsepower, bound4blue, Corvus, OMS and DIGICAT.