My mom was famous for saying it when I was younger. "Go fly a kite". Whenever my brother and I made too much of not getting some soon to be insignificant toy. After hours of constantly following her around while bickering with one another over such things as who gets to sit in the front seat, who gets to pick the radio station, and who’s turn it was with the remote…inevitably it would be said. "Can’t you boys go fly a kite or something" Little did she know that someday the very distraction she begged us to go enjoy would become an alternate source of energy.
We all know about Ben Franklin and his experiments with a key, a kite, and a particularly dangerous thunderstorm, but now some 100 odd years later the kite is making a new leap in terms of it’s value to man. Introducing the MV Beluga Skysails cargo ship!!
The cargo ship represents the latest in man’s attempt at finding alternate sources of fuel. As you can see above the Beluga is a attached to a large kite that catches those powerful ocean winds swirling above and helps pull the ship along it’s course. With a maiden voyage set to take place in 2008, the kite is expected to cut fuel costs by 20%!! Our pals over at Treehugger report that according to a Beluga company rep "The shipping industry emits 800 million tonnes of CO2 now and that will rise to over 1 billion tonnes in five years.This news puts fresh wind in our sails. Let’s just hope their leads don’t get tangled with the kitesurfers, who are cropping up all over the world" Watch this short clip from Reuters for more info:
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