Greener, faster, and more affordable shipping is promised by autonomous kite-powered boats.
There’s a good probability that everything from your phone to your clothes to the meal you had this morning was delivered by water from its place of manufacture to your point of purchase.
Roughly 90% of international trade is accounted for by the shipping industry.
Huge cargo ships that can carry enormous amounts of freight transport the majority of these commodities. However, their speed and agility are lacking.
Long shipment wait times may arise from this. Furthermore, more than air travel, diesel-guzzling cargo ships account for about 3% of the world’s CO2 emissions.
The German business CargoKite hopes to replace these boats with fleets of tiny, self-sufficient wind-powered boats that can complete tasks more quickly, more affordably, and without emitting emissions.
The boat is propelled forward by a massive kite that captures winds up to 300 meters in altitude. Air moving closer to the ground is not as steady or consistent as these winds.
Compared to traditional cargo vessels, which spend more than half of their operating costs on gasoline alone, the boats are far less expensive to operate since they utilize free wind power.
CargoKite will outfit its boats with a diesel-electric motor as a standby power source for exceptionally quiet days. Either completely electric vehicles or fuels with no emissions are the long-term objectives.
The hydrofoils on CargoKite’s boats will lift the hull out of the water, minimizing drag. The business anticipates that as a result, its boats will go twice as quickly as a typical cargo ship. They can unload and offload cargo more quickly at ports thanks to their smaller size.
Yet CargoKite’s software is the true innovation and its main intellectual property.
AI-driven navigation
To increase efficiency, CargoKite has developed an algorithm that manages the balance between the kite and the hydrofoils on its own.
Additionally, CargoKite has created an AI-driven route planner. Based on current weather conditions, the program computes the best route and accurately estimates a vessel’s estimated time of arrival.
CargoKite was the brainchild of Marcus Bischoff, an enthusiastic kitesurfer and entrepreneur who studied at the Technical University of Munich.
On the company website, Bischoff stated, “I was always fascinated by the enormous forces that a kite can generate. I was a passionate kite surfer for more than 20 years and an engineer at heart.”
“In conjunction with significant advancements in control engineering and ship retrofitting using kites, I observed a turning point in technology that facilitates the development of a new class of ships.”
Later, Bischoff formed a team with Tim Linnenweber and Amelie Binder, two more students. To realize the idea, the partners formed CargoKite in 2022.
Since then, the business has expanded to employ 16 people out of a tiny Munich office. It has pre-seed funding from the US early-stage fund SOSV and announced a partnership with Lomarlabs, the venture division of the British shipping company Lomar, this week.
CargoKite is described as a “radical new ship type” by Lomarlabs managing director Stylianos Papageorgiou, who believes it has the ability to “reframe the way port and maritime logistics are organised” and turn into a “groundbreaking decarbonisation solution for shipping.”
A 9-meter catamaran equipped with hydrofoils and a kite system was tested in the Atlantic Ocean by CargoKite last year.
The business is currently building its demonstrator prototype and designing its full-size vessel. In 2027, it plans to launch its first fleet.
