Wind-powered coal carrier to lift coal for Tohoku Electric at Australia's Newcastle port

The Mitsui O.S.K. Lines-owned Shofu Maru, a wind-powered coal carrier, has arrived at Newcastle, Australia to load thermal coal for Japan's Tohoku Electric in its maiden call, MOL and Tohoku Electric said Oct. 25.

The Shofu Maru is the fourth coal carrier controlled by Tohoku Electric, a company spokesperson said. It will be used for transporting coal mainly from Australia, Indonesia and North America.

Tohoku Electric introduced the Shofu Maru, the world's first coal carrier equipped with a hard sail wind power propulsion system known as a Wind Challenger, as part of its efforts toward 2050 carbon neutrality, the spokesperson said.

The introduction of the Wind Challenger system is expected to cut greenhouse gas emissions about 5% on a Japan-Australia voyage and about 8% on a Japan-North America West Coast voyage, compared to a conventional vessel of the same type, contributing to curbing GHG emissions during fuel transportation, according to MOL and Tohoku Electric.

Tohoku Electric plans to discharge a coal cargo on the Shofu Maru from Newcastle at Noshiro in Akita prefecture in November, said the spokesperson, declining to elaborate.

The Shofu Maru, which is currently at the Kooragang coal terminal in Newcastle, is estimated to arrive at Noshiro on Nov. 14, according to data from Platts cFlow ship and commodity tracking software from S&P Global Commodity Insights.

Tohoku Electric has three 600 MW coal-fired units at the Noshiro thermal power plant in northwestern Japan.

The Shofu Maru, which was built at Oshima Shipbuilding in Nagasaki prefecture, was delivered and started operations on Oct. 7.