A British startup is developing racing yachts that produce hydrogen while sailing in the sea. With wind power becoming the biggest energy source in 2024 in the United Kingdom, Drift Energy wants to harness offshore wind to produce and transport fuel more efficiently than ever before.
According to the International Energy Agency, wind power will surpass hydropower and become the second-largest renewable source after solar by the end of the decade.
Although location-dependent, wind turbines are more efficient than solar panels, capturing 50 per cent of the energy average that passes through them as opposed to 20 per cent for solar, CNN reported.
Ben Medland, the founder and CEO of Drift, said that they would make “renewable energy in the ocean using sailboats” and transport that energy to ports all over the world.
Drift debuted two prototypes in 2022, each slightly longer than 17 feet (5 meters), at the Sail GP sailing league in Plymouth Harbour, UK.
Mr Medland claimed that the racing yacht was “a first-ever class of mobile renewable energy” that does not need “grid infrastructure,” “cables under the ocean,” “foundations or anchors,” which are “free range” wind turbines.
An algorithm at the core of Drift’s technology searches for what Mr Medland referred to as “Goldilock conditions”-wind that is powerful enough to produce energy without posing a threat.
The Goldilocks algorithm “sails 6 million virtual miles in 0.02 seconds” to select the next mile of the optimal path, which was not available 10, 15 years ago, Mr Medland added.
Drift will go through foreign waters, including the Caribbean and the North Atlantic. With a crew of six, the ships will have to discharge the hydrogen in port once a week on average, or as often as every ten days if the best weather occurs farther out from shore.
The first ship will cost an excessive 20 million pounds (about $24 million) because of the amount of development and research.
According to Mr Medland, the cost will drop to “single-digit millions” at scale, claiming that Drift may receive initial orders for over 40 vessels.
