Full green ahead: Sea transport is ditching diesel engines for electric

Ships are among the world’s biggest polluters. To replace them means finding alternatives to traditional diesel engines. With climate change at the fore of the industry's mind, companies are testing the waters with game-changing solutions.

You might think a cargo sailboat is something out of a history book, but in fact, they are actually the result of years of cutting-edge research and development. French company "Grain de Sail" claims to have created the first modern sailboat that meets the merchant fleet requirements.

"Before steam engines and fuel engines existed, all transportation was by sail. But we used modern methods when designing this ship to make it much more efficient," says Xavier Demeulenaere, regional director of Grain de Sail ahead of the crew’s transatlantic journey.

The company that makes chocolate and coffee from Latin American beans built its sailboats from scratch with sustainability in mind — like its specially designed 50-tonne cargo hold with climate control powered by solar and wind energy.

François Le Naourès, a sailor and crew member says: "We showed [our methods] to be economically viable, and we are ready to go even further into the future, with perhaps a much larger fleet of boats, we hope."

The company is now building a larger vessel and a new chocolate factory in Dunkirk, France.

Embracing the wind to reduce emissions is a growing trend in the shipping industry.

There are other sustainable projects for the shipping industry in the pipeline. Maritime transport company "Alizés" is building a hybrid ship equipped with mechanical wingsails to transport "Ariane 6" rocket parts from Europe to its launch site in French Guiana.

Another developer, "Airseas", suggests an automated kite system aiming to