The company Michelin makes car tyres and guide books. However, it is now helping ships to be more environmentally friendly. It has made giant sails to make shipping greener. Shipping produces 940 million tons of CO2 a year – about 2.5 per cent of the world's greenhouse gasses. Oil tankers, container ships and cruise ships use a lot of fossil fuel. The new sails could cut the amount of CO2 ships produce by 20 per cent.
Michelin is using old technology on today's biggest problem – climate change. Boats have used sails for 5,000 years. The new sails are different. Sailors fill them with air to get them to their full size. They are 280 square metres in size. Michelin hopes to start selling them in 2022. It said: "Our aim is to contribute to the de-carbonization of [sea] transport." It added that the good thing about wind is that it is a free fuel.
Try the same news story at these levels:
Green Shipping - Level 0, Green Shipping - Level 2 or Green Shipping - Level 3
Sources- https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/cargo-ships-sails-michelin-spc-intl/index.html
- https://robbreport.com/motors/marine/michelin-nifty-new-inflatable-sail-aims-decarbonize-large-vessels-1234619071/
- https://www.slashgear.com/michelin-wing-sail-mobility-project-makes-massive-cargo-ships-more-efficient-10677143/
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