Europort Industry Leader Q&A - Gavin Allwright
As part of the #Europort Industry Leader Q&A series, we hear from Gavin Allwright, Secretary General of the International Windship Association (IWSA), a leading voice in the push for wind propulsion in commercial shipping. With Europort 2025 shining a spotlight on energy transition as one of its key themes and a dedicated space reserved on the Green Stage for the innovators of decarbonisation, the conversation couldn’t be more timely.
Gavin shares his journey into the maritime sector and his vision for the future of wind-assisted shipping, and explores how wind power can accelerate the industry's shift toward zero-emission operations.
What attracted you to the maritime industry and how did you get started?
I came to the maritime industry through my activities in sustainable development over 20 years ago. I joined a small not-for-profit organisation that was designing small, zero-emissions sail/solar powered vessels for use primarily in Small Island Developing States (SIDs) and Least Developed Countries (LDC) in maritime regions. I guess this must have been in the blood, as my father was Royal Navy and I was brought up on a diet of tall maritime tales. My wife’s side of the family have been heavily involved in the maritime sector too, from shipbuilding to shipbreaking - so the maritime world has been around me for quite some time.
The International Windship Association was born over a decade ago when a small group of pioneers and innovators in the field came together and realised that a lot of 'pre-market’ work needed to be done to rebuild the credibility of wind as a propulsive energy source for commercial shipping, while the technological side of things developed.
What does an average day look like for you and what part of your role do you enjoy the most?
There is rarely an 'average’ day which is part of what I love about the job. Of course we have the internal side of the association with administration, membership, finance and governance issues to deal with, but most of my days are taken up with industry engagement, policy development, working groups and communication activities. My phone (and email) is continually throwing up new sectors/regions/stakeholders in the industry that want to learn more or have questions about the sector - this is always fascinating.
Probably the most rewarding part of my role however is in the education field, I regularly interact with students and researchers, and I thoroughly enjoy holding regular maritime sustainability and wind propulsion seminars at the World Maritime University and elsewhere. The energy and interest that these students have really energises me and makes me continually question and revisit themes and trends so I can make these alive and engaging for this cadre of new maritime leaders that will be taking the industry into the zero emission future in the second quarter of this century.
In your capacity as Secretary General of IWSA, what are your hopes for the sector - and are projects/advances with wind powered ships moving as quickly as you would like?
This is quite simple to answer. In the existing fleet: every ship that can install wind systems as retrofits does just that. This is the vast majority of ships currently operating.
Then for all newbuild vessels, we should make these at least wind-ready but actually be moving towards every one of these being installed with wind devices. Ultimately, we should be optimising all ships for wind, dramatically increasing the number of primary wind vessels (50%+ powered by wind) and invest in regenerative technologies that enable ships to capture unused wind energy so it can be converted into fuel onboard for use when the wind doesn’t blow.
Dealing with the second part of the question, we are seeing the start of exponential growth, fleet orders and the doubling of installations and newbuilds each year. While that is a healthy growth rate, it can be accelerated substantially. We have a robust toolkit of wind propulsion systems, and these can be deployed at scale without a large infrastructure to drive deployment forward. So, we can and we should be going much faster than we currently are.
Over the last few years, there has been an industry wide drive focused on attracting the next generation. Is there anything else your sector should be doing to attract new talent?
The shipping industry has in the past been quite poor about reaching out to the wider world and attracting new talent. We should be more comfortable speaking about the fantastic opportunities in the maritime industry. Everything in our industry is in a flux: new technologies, new fuels, new operational approaches, digitalisation, material science, engineering and design changes, autonomy, and so on. We should be celebrating these developments and frankly there is nothing more visual, iconic or exciting than seeing a huge ship propelled in part or in the main by some form of wind propulsion - zero-emission, zero-cost energy for the 21st Century - what a message.
What is the best piece of advice you have been given over the years, and what advice would you give to someone considering a career in maritime?
The best piece of advice was given to me by my father years ago. He always said that you can find a hundred reasons to say no, or to turn away, but you only need to find one reason to say yes and grab that opportunity. That has served me well, but it has also spoken to what our association is here to do. We are here to open the space, to help foster the interactions and collaborations and to build trust among stakeholders - in other words to build the environment where you can find that 'one’ reason to say yes, and maybe more.
If you are just starting out in the maritime world, I would say that your opinion, your insights and experiences are valid and needed in the sector. To the outsider, the maritime sector can be seen as conservative, set in its ways. That was perhaps true 10 years ago, it certainly isn’t now, so be bold, search for the areas where change is happening quickly, and jump in.
In your opinion, what is the biggest challenge for our sector at this time? How could this be overcome?
We have many challenges, but I think one of the key ones is perception change. For so many years (and still today), many stakeholders in the shipping industry perceive our sector as a super tanker: slow to change, hard-to-abate, often a policy pariah that is only driven by compliance. This then informs policy, decision making, finance and all other areas of activity within the sector.
However, we are the only international sector that has a global net-zero goal by around 2050 and the first to have a proposed global carbon price (though limited in scope). We are also the linchpin industry for almost all trade and much of the energy, food and other industrial sectors on the planet; and from our perspective, this is also the only transport sector that has abundant, free access to direct propulsive energy that has no environmental impact whatsoever, i.e. wind.
One way to start the shift in perception is to adopt a 'Full-Emissions Profile’ (not just GHG) and a 'Total Cost of Ownership’ approach to shipping and all other modes of transport. This at a single stroke would change the baseline away from 'fossil fuel’ to 'zero-emission’ energy sources, such as wind. In turn, we can then drop the restrictive labelling of; 'environmentally friendly this…, green that…, sustainable the other…’ and these become the standard and then we add the labels to the 'dirty, dangerous and destructive’ forms of technology, energy, finance and so on.
What is the most interesting change/trend you have seen over the last 12 months, and what impact will this have on the wider industry?
I have to bring this home and say two trends that are intertwined and mentioned earlier in the interview; these are fleet orders of wind propulsion technologies and primary wind ship newbuilds. I truly believe that the embracing of wind propulsion has the potential to totally transform our industry.
To put this into simple financial terms, if we were to roll out wind propulsion fully across the fleet by 2030-2035, a 20% saving in fuel alone (as a combination of wind-assist and primary wind vessels) would unlock between US$1-2 trillion up to 2050, effectively enabling that finance to be used to fully decarbonise the fuel required to fill the rest. However, if we combine the wind propulsion system dissemination with energy efficiency measures and voyage optimisation approaches, then we could be reducing that fuel requirement down to 40% or less of what we need now to do the same work.
The realisation that this energy pathway is a crucial one is one trend that has been gaining momentum, and I think that this will only continue to grow as we approach the 2030 strive targets of 30% reduction in emissions.