Life world

The 140m-long cargo vessel ‘Beluga SkySails’ will be launched with the new SkySails towing kite system on Saturday, 15 December 2007. The project will verify that the innovative kite system can make an essential contribution to reducing fuel consumption and the emission of greenhouse gases.

The WINTECC project has developed the SkySails-System, which is an innovative wind propulsion system for modern shipping. It consists of a fully automated towing kite and a wind-optimised routeing system. It is used in addition to the propulsion of the ship’s engine where wind conditions allow to improve efficiency. It offers high performance, high practicability and high safety.

The towing kites can be aligned according to the wind direction, wind force, ship route and ship speed and are designed to provide optimal aerodynamic efficiency at any wind speed. An automatic system allows the towing kite, control pod and towing rope to be launched and recovered automatically.

A constant, powerful propulsion force is achieved with the aid of the routeing system, which facilitates the utilisation of advantageous winds and thus quicker voyages. The routeing system consists of four modules: weather forecasting; performance calculation; decision-making model; and route recommendation.

As well as demonstrating the success of the towing system in different sea and weather conditions and subsequent environmental benefits, WINTECC will work to collect, measure and obtain data to verify the influence of the kite on the ship’s movements. An innovative wave monitoring system will test the accuracy of the weather forecasts and the local wind situation.

For more information on the project and the ship’s launch, visit the project’s website and read the project summary.

WINTECC - Demonstration of an innovative wind propulsion technology for cargo vessels
LIFE06 ENV/D/000479

Released vulture chicks start to fly

One of the two Lammergeier chicks
being released into the wild
(photo: LIFE04 NAT/ES/000056) 27 November 2007 Two Lammergeier or bearded vulture (Gypaetus barbatus) chicks released into the wild in Spain in May 2007 by the LIFE-Nature project ‘Preliminary actions and reintroduction of the bearded vulture’ (LIFE04 NAT/ES/000056) have started to fly.

Bearded vulture is the most endangered vulture species in Europe. It disappeared from Andalusia in the 1980s, mainly due to the illegal use of poison, collisions with power lines, lack of feeding resources and illegal hunting. The chicks were released as part of a sustained project to re-populate the area.

Both chicks were born in captive breeding centres in February and were reared before being released into a cave in the Sierra de Segura in Andalusia. This is the second time that individuals from this species have been successfully released back into the wild at this location. In 2006, three bearded vultures - Tono, Faust and Libertad - were successfully released and have since been spotted over the park and as far afield as the Pyrenees.

The youngest chick, Pontones, carried out its first flight 21 days after the release; it lasted around half a minute. Four days later, Segura carried out its first flight, which lasted nearly a minute. It flew again that evening for around two minutes, finally settling on an elevated rock where it spent the night.

Each passing day is a small triumph for the project, increasing the likelihood that new bearded vultures will be born in the natural environment. The project aims to create a naturalised breeding population by releasing at least 25 young bearded vultures over five years.

For more information on the project, visit the: project website and read the project summary.

Preliminary actions and reintroduction of the bearded vulture
LIFE04 NAT/ES/000056

Next LIFE website thematic pages online: Waste
26 November 2007 Waste experts and those generally interested in the environmental theme of waste now are able to access a range of waste-related information on LIFE projects on the LIFE website.

The Waste thematic pages section is now the fifth such section published, following on from thematic pages covering Energy & Climate; Water; Air; and the Urban Environment & Quality of Life. Grouping together project descriptions, publications, videos and articles related to a specific theme, the thematic sections make it easier for researchers, environmental scientists or any other interested parties to find information on the actions carried out under LIFE within their particular field.

Watch this space for further environmental themes to be going online soon!

LIFE+ Committee meets for first time
23 November 2007 The LIFE+ Committee held its first meeting in Brussels on 21 September 2007. Made up of representatives from the Member States, the committee meeting was chaired by Philip Owen, Head of the LIFE unit.

The meeting was an opportunity to inform Member States about the organisation of the 2007 call for proposals and the evaluation and selection of projects. More information on the call can be found on the LIFE website.

The Commission also presented the new common provisions which have been published on the LIFE website in the meantime.

The committee was reminded that the LIFE+ Regulation allows Member States to define national annual priorities selected from the areas listed in the LIFE Regulation as of 2008 and also make comments on proposals.

The LIFE+ Committee held a discussion on how to ensure complementarity between the LIFE+ Programme and other EU funds, notably the Structural Funds, the Rural Development Programme, the Competitiveness and Innovation Programme and the Research Framework Programme.

Finally, the committee approved the commission's proposal on the form and content of beneficiaries reports. The four types of report foreseen from each beneficiary are: inception report; progress report; mid-term report with payment request; and final report with payment request. The reports will have a common structure and include most of the elements from the reporting formats under the previous LIFE programme.