Harnessing Renewables at Sea - Shipping's unique opportunity

Sails never really went away — they just got smarter. Wind propulsion is now one of shipping's most credible decarbonisation technologies, with Flettner rotors, rigid wing sails and suction sails already proving their worth on commercial fleets worldwide.

But the gap between installing a system and consistently realising its potential is wider than most expect. This talk explores wind propulsion from an operational perspective: what drives real-world performance, how to identify and recover missed savings, and what good deployment looks like in practice — from bridge procedures through to performance monitoring.

Whether you work in fleet management, newbuild specification, or simply want to understand how wind fits into shipping's decarbonisation picture, you'll leave with a clearer sense of what separates a successful deployment from one that underperforms — and why that distinction matters.

Meet your speaker

Jesse Bryce, Maritime Decarbonisation Specialist

Jesse has spent his career at sea and close to it, starting as a deck cadet and working his way to Master Mariner. For the past three and a half years he's been focused on wind propulsion technology as part of a fleet operating BAR Technologies WindWings and Norsepower Rotor Sails, with over 2,000 tonnes of CO₂ saved. His work centres on making these systems perform operationally: monitoring utilisation, flagging issues early, and developing methods to quantify the savings impact of every missed deployment opportunity.

We welcome visitors to the Port to come and experience our unique environment and learn more about us. While enjoying your time here, please be aware that this is a working Port and moving vehicles, uneven ground and deep water all feature within our footprint.

Please be careful as you explore; keep away from the water’s edge and bear the weather conditions in mind. While here you must follow any instructions provided by our team, and stay on marked walkways at all times.

Please make sure you wear suitable footwear and weather-appropriate clothing.

With sustainability in mind, we are a short walk from the train station at Southwick, right on the Stagecoach 700 bus route, and have a lot of room for cycles. If you choose to drive, there are a limited number of parking spaces available at Shoreham Port, including disabled spaces.

We ask that attendees ensure to allow plenty of time to get to where you need to be, for most events we would advise arriving 10 minutes before the advertised start time. There is no need to print tickets, please just give your name to a member of the team at the entrance.