International non-profit organization Greenpeace has signed a contract with Spain’s Freire Shipyard to begin construction of a new green sailing ship.
As disclosed, the new vessel has been designed to pioneer sustainable technology, and to show in practice that long-distance voyages at sea can be accomplished using different sources of renewable energy.
Greenpeace noted that the decision to begin construction comes after years of design work to ensure it will be part of sustainable shipping at launch.
The 75-meter-long ship will be equipped with more than 2,000 square meters of sails supporting energy regeneration on board, battery packs, and solar panels. It will harness the power of the wind and the sun.
The sailing vessel will be as close to fossil fuel-free as possible at launch and it has been designed to transition to 100 percent green energy as soon as technically and logistically possible, Greenpeace stated.
After the contract signing, the organization will now begin the task of raising donations to fund it. If the fund raising is completed on time, Greenpeace expects the vessel to start its campaign in 2027.
“We trust that in the coming years more will join this small group to demand and to manifest a vessel which is radical today, but that we hope will one day become normal,” Greenpeace said.
“We know that what we do in the next decade will shape the rest of the century. We know that every half-degree of global warming, every half-meter of sea level rise, every species that vanishes from the planet, will reverberate into the future.”