Study of incorporating kite or balloon technology to UMT Research Boat

Abstract

Rising oil prices, increasing competition in the maritime industry, climate change and pollution are significantly more prevalent among the causes of the search of alternative energy other than the use of crude oil. One of the energy that is suitable to use is wind energy because it is easily found, especially at the ocean. The large kite has been used by several types of ships as one of the propulsion system to move the ship. This study is done for the feasibility of incorporating kite technology to move the UMT boat in Terengganu waters that have been selected to save the consumption of diesel. The amount of power saving was calculated using the formulae from the previous research. Then, economic assessment was carried out based on amount of power saving. Using kite propulsion technology, fuel consumption can be reduced thus resulting in lower and operation costs on the particular routes. The results of the economic assessment indicate that, annual average cost for boat with kite sail is lesser than annual average cost for boat without kite sail. It is expected that the capital investment in the new device will be recovered within 9 years.