A computer-generated image of the sails and solar panels of the ship. (Reuters)

Stockholm, May 29 (Reuters): Will technological advances, fuel costs and environmental concerns bring back commercial sailing for cargo ships?

Shipping firm Wallenius Wilhelmsen (WW) has designed a high-tech “back to the future” freighter powered solely by wind and waves in the expectation that increasing regulation and shipping costs over the next 20 years will force the industry to come up with greener vessels.

“In part it is legislation, in part that we want to be seen as innovators,” said Lena Blomqvist, WW’s vice president with responsibility for the environment. “We realise that we are part of the problem and we want to be part of the solution.”

The Orcelle will have emission levels near zero and WW hopes the design would allow such a ship to carry up 10,000 cars and trucks and set the pattern for the future transport of cargo.

Propulsion for the five-hulled ship, named after an endangered species of dolphin, would come from high-tech sails and a set of pods below the water line that would trap the energy of the waves. Additionally, solar cells in the sails would charge fuel cells to power electric motors.

“When we are on the ocean we have almost limitless access to energy, but a modern vessel fights the elements,” said Per Brinchmann, the naval architect who designed the ship to turn the power of mother nature into motion on the ocean. “The albatross gets 98 per cent of its energy for flight from the wind and 2 per cent from its wings.”

Concern for the bottom line has already pushed WW to cut the fuel use of its existing fleet by 10 per cent over the last few years and reduce nitrogen and sulphur dioxide emissions.

Sulphur dioxide causes acid rain and nitrogen emissions upset the balance of nutrients in the ocean, both big problems in the Baltic Sea where WW is based.

Regulators are also stepping up pressure.

The International Maritime Organisation (IMO) will introduce rules to cut sulphur in fuels for some ocean regions in 2006. WW said its low sulphur fuels costs around $20 dollars per tonne more than the standard fuel. Tighter rules on oil emissions in bilge water, anti-fouling paints and recycling are also likely to follow.

At the same time, companies which transport goods by ship need to reassure increasingly concerned investors that they are taking green issues in their supply chain seriously.

One of the firm’s major clients, an auto manufacturer, now audits emissions of shipping firms. “Other customers will come and ask for it as part of their own corporate responsibility work,” said Blomqvist.

It is not just pollution from marine diesel ? higher in sulphur and worse for the environment than more refined types of fuel ? which the new ship would eliminate.

Clever design on the Orcelle eliminates the need for ballast water, which can contain up to 7,000 marine species that have a huge impact when dumped outside their native ecosystem.