WITH Greenock’s cruise ship season now at an end, the Ocean Terminal played host to a rather less glamorous, though no less fascinating, visitor on Monday.

The latest arrival at the Ocean Terminal’s pontoon was the nuclear fuel carrier Pacific Grebe.

It’s owned by Pacific Nuclear Transport Limited (PNTL), part of the Nuclear Transport Solutions group.

Rather than carrying nuclear fuel, however, the ship is currently undergoing sea trials under charter to Smart Green Shipping for tests of its FastRig ‘wing sails’ system.

According to industry journal BunkerSpot, the project aims to assess the fuel savings delivered by the system's wind propulsion technology, with a view to eventually installing the equipment on a commercial biomass version for the first time.

Engineers from technical consultancy Houlder are on board to independently validate data on the fuel savings and emissions reductions achieved by the system.

The ‘wing sails’ system has already undergone three days of sea trials between Barrow-in-Furness and Southampton, and testing is expected to continue until early November.

Renewable energy producer Drax Group is spending £1 million on the trial system, matched by a grant from the UK Government's Clean Maritime Demonstration Competition.

The ship was delivered to PNTL in 2010, and is an INF 3 certified vessel under the INF Code of the International Maritime Organization (IMO).

PNTL says that “like its sister ships the Pacific Heron and Pacific Egret, its design builds on the experience of operating purpose-built nuclear carriers since 1979”.