The Power Of Wind: Interview With Bound4blue Founder
Shipowners and operators may be able to decrease their fuel-related costs and pollutant emissions up to 30%, thanks to a new system created by Bound4blue. The Spanish company aims at delivering automated wind-assisted propulsion systems (also called wingsails) that can be integrated onto a wide range of vessels. The Beam spoke with one of the founders, José Miguel Bermúdez.
Who are the people behind Bound4blue?
The project was founded by Cristina Aleixendri, David Ferrer, and me, José Miguel Bermúdez. The three of us are aeronautical engineers, which clearly served as the foundation of the technology developed. We found soft sails installed in sailing boats or yachts, but none in commercial vessels. We believed we could apply our knowledge in aeronautics to build a high-lift device for the shipping industry adapted to its requirements, that could be the solution to the two showstopper challenges they are facing: high fuel operating expenses and emissions reduction pressure from international entities.
We have been selected as one of Europe’s most promising innovators under 35 by MIT and featured amongst the 30 brightest industry European entrepreneurs under the age of 30 by Forbes. The design, manufacture, and launch of scientific capsules to the space, the construction of efficient wind towers, or the deployment of Geodetic Quality Sea-Ice drift buoys in the Arctic are some examples that precede our team and that mark a business and technological trajectory for Bound4blue.
The team is nowadays formed by 15 people, who combine several expertise in different fields of business and engineering, including aerospace engineering, naval architects, electronics engineering, statisticians and mechanical engineering.
How exactly do the automated wind assisted propulsion systems work? Can we talk about renewable energy in this case?
Bound4blue’s wingsail system generates effective thrust from wind power and thereby reduces the engine power required, saving fuel and pollutant emissions. For example, one of the latest cases we are working on is a Handysize (183-meter length) vessel, operating in the route Busan (South Korea) – Seattle (US). In this case, installing two 30-meter units of our system, we can save more than 940 tons of fuel per year, which represents more than 2,900 tons of CO2 savings per year, with an investment payback period of less than three years. Having successfully passed all the tests in the prototyping phase and being within the pilot phase, our systems are now being implemented on four ships.
So to sum up, of course we can talk about renewable energy in this case. The only source we are using in the overall process is the wind power, which is directly used to propel the ships with no intermediate energy conversion. In the end and from a conceptual point of view, it is the same process that humanity has been using for thousands of years, using the wind to navigate.
Image courtesy Bound4blue
What makes this technology innovative?
Bound4blue’s innovative technology is a creative application of an already existing one. Wind was once used centuries ago to propel vessels, so it is as simple as going back to the basics but using 21st century aeronautical technology. The solution was inside the industry from the very beginning, but we were able to take our aeronautical knowledge and build it on top of an ancient concept to create Bound4blue’s solution. The challenge we had to deal with was adapting this technology to commercial vessels and finding solutions to problems that are specific to those vessels.
Our technology is capable of providing double-digit fuel savings and emissions reduction with a payback below five years, it can be folded (useful for fleets with air-draft or operations limitations), it has extended operability thanks to the rotation capability and it works with a simple and fully autonomous operation, so no extra training or workload from the crew is required.
What can its impact on the shipping sector be? How can it help reduce emissions in the long term?
Maritime transport is a key industry for our society, transporting over 80% of the worldwide cargo. However, its pollutant emissions are a major environmental challenge. Maritime transport accounts for 3% of the global CO2 emissions, 15% of NO worldwide emissions and 13% of SO2 global emissions; it is having a direct impact on our planet in forms of global warming or acid rain, and being responsible of 14 million cases of childhood asthma each year and 60,000 cardiopulmonary and lung cancer deaths annually. In fact, maritime transport generates as much CO2 as the sixth most polluting country in the world, and the 16 largest vessels in the world generate the same amount of Sulphur emissions as the entire global fleet of cars.
Our technology reduces the emissions produced in the maritime transport of cargo and people by decreasing the use of fossil fuel with the same level of energy used by the ship. According to the Impact Forecast Analysis we carried out using the Climate Impact Forecast tool, more than 590 thousand tons of CO2 emissions will be saved in the following five years due to Bound4blue’s forecasted installations. So our technology will be a massive emission saver in the upcoming years. Also, our solution provides huge opportunities to modernize the infrastructure which will create new jobs and promote greater prosperity across the globe.
What kind of setbacks have you encountered, and what kind of support helped you get through? Where will future endeavors bring you?
As with any product development, there is a risk of obtaining lower performances and not achieving the desired economic viability for the market. The technological and practical feasibility have been proven so far by our land prototypes and the demo is being run for merchant and fishing vessels.
Bound4blue’s solution is highly capital intensive, but we have already succeeded in raising over €5.8 million contribution from private investors and grants. In this type of venture, there is always a risk of slow market acceptance and adoption, but interest in the product has already been proven. Bound4blue has received funding from the European Regional Development Fund throughout several projects granted by the Government of Catalonia and the Government of Cantabria, as well as from the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) throughout two projects which are being developed right now together with other European companies. Moreover, Bound4blue received funding from EIT Climate KIC and presently financial support throughout the extraordinary COVID-19 venture support call. EIT Climate KIC has supported us with financing, mentoring, training and access to a global network of investors, as well as increasing our media exposure. They have helped us translate our business model into more transactions with customers that are validating our core value proposition, as well as enabled us to attract more capital to progress into the next stage in the business development.
Bound4blue is now at a pre-commercial stage. The next step is to implement a worldwide industrial network (shipyards, systems manufacturing and assembly), as well as to grow the team in the business development and commercial departments to expand operations and boost sales in Europe and Asia. Moreover, we will undergo incremental development to decrease costs while increasing efficiency and security.
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An Angus ranch in southern Oregon has become the test case for a new kind of cattle-friendly solar, hosting RUTE SunTracker’s first commercial project.
The one‑acre, 120‑kilowatt array is the first real‑world installation of RUTE’s patented, cable‑stayed solar tracker designed specifically to coexist with grazing cattle. RUTE supplies the hardware and is also acting as the developer for its first regional cattle‑plus‑solar demonstrations.
What makes the setup different is the clearance. The tracker system provides about 10 feet of headroom, with panel heights reaching up to 16 feet across the array. That gives cattle full access to the pasture underneath while allowing ranchers to keep managing the land as usual. The project is interconnected to Pacific Power’s grid in Jackson County, Oregon.
Projects like this are getting more attention as the solar industry runs into land‑use limits. In the US alone, about 30 gigawatts of new solar capacity installed last year covered roughly 150,000 acres. Meanwhile, the country has close to 120 million acres of cattle pasture, much of it facing rising heat and water stress.
That’s where agrivoltaics come in. By adding solar to working pastureland, ranchers can create a second revenue stream while improving growing conditions for forage through partial shade.
“Within weeks of installing the RUTE canopy, the crew observed leafier forage and increased legume presence inside the array compared to outside,” RUTE president Doug Krause said. “Even on irrigated pasture, direct summer sun can be too intense.”
RUTE’s work has been supported by grants from the US Department of Energy’s American‑Made Solar Prize and the US Department of Agriculture. In October, Oregon State University’s Agrivoltaics Program began quantitative studies at the site to measure pasture production, adding hard data to what ranchers are already seeing on the ground.
Next, RUTE plans to take the project on the road. This winter, the company will present at cattlemen’s association meetings as it looks for ranch partners with onsite electric loads, such as irrigation pivot systems.
“In the near term, our focus is on regional, behind‑the‑meter installations so ranchers and power producers can see the equipment operating in real conditions,” Krause said. “While interconnection timelines are long, these projects allow us to build momentum as we connect with developers and ranches on utility‑scale pipeline.”
Read more: Sunrun + NRG launch a virtual power plant to ease Texas power demand
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Environment
Tesla rental fleet that bought into Elon Musk’s self-driving lies goes bankrupt due to depreciation
Dutch leasing company Mistergreen, known for its “Tesla only” fleet and bold bets on a future of autonomous robotaxis, is reportedly facing bankruptcy. The company’s financial collapse highlights the danger of buying into Elon Musk’s claims that Tesla vehicles would become “appreciating assets”—a prediction that has faced a harsh reality check in the used EV market.
According to reports from Europe, the Dutch Tesla-only car rental firm Mistergreen has wiped out its bondholders and is selling off its operations.
Mistergreen had built its entire business model around the premise of operating a fleet of Tesla vehicles that would not only hold their value but eventually generate revenue as robotaxis.
Instead, the company has been forced to write down millions in fleet value as Tesla aggressively cut new car prices over the last two years, pulling the rug out from under used EV prices, and never delivered on its promise of consumer vehicles becoming robotaxis.
Back in 2019, Elon Musk famously claimed that Tesla vehicles were now “appreciating assets” because of their Full Self-Driving (FSD) capability. He stated:
“I think the most profound thing is that if you buy a Tesla today, I believe you are buying an appreciating asset – not a depreciating asset.”
He even went so far as to suggest that a Tesla Model 3 could be worth $100,000 to $200,000 as a revenue-generating robotaxi. Mistergreen bought into that claim and was essentially a leveraged bet on this exact scenario.
They wrote their annual report in 2022:
Our focus is driven by the fact that Tesla’s electric vehicles are currently the highest quality electric vehicles on the market (in terms of battery quality, software updates, efficiency and range, charging network and speed), their hardware and software are prepared for future self-driving cars, and the quality and range of the Tesla (supercharger) charging network is superior. As a result, there is a significant market demand for Tesla’s and we anticipate that Tesla’s will have better residual value in the future due to the good quality of the Tesla’s currently on the market.
However, as we discussed in an article earlier this year about Elon Musk’s biggest lie, the reality has been the exact opposite. Tesla vehicles have depreciated faster than the industry average, exacerbated by Tesla’s own decision to slash prices to maintain demand and by the fact that it never delivered on its promise that software updates would make its consumer vehicles autonomous without supervision.
At its peak, Mistergreen had a fleet of over 4,000 Tesla vehicles, which is impressive, but it meant that it was hit even harder by the depreciation.
For buyers, a cheaper Tesla is great news. For owners or leasing companies holding thousands of them on their books, with high residual-value guarantees, it’s a death sentence.
Mistergreen had issued bonds to buy the Tesla vehicles, but it hasn’t been able to repay them since last year. It’s unclear how much of investors’ money has been wiped out by the bet, but it is in the tens of millions of dollars.
A couple of Dutch, Belgian, and German leasing companies will purchase the remaining fleet.
Electrek reached out to CEO Florian Minderop and co-founder Mark Schreurs for comments, but we didn’t hear back by the time of publishing.
Electrek’s Take
They believed Elon and they lost tens of millions of dollars worth of investors’ money for it.
We have been saying for years that while FSD is impressive, there’s no evidence that it can reach level 4 autonomy in consumer vehicles. Banking on it turning cars into appreciating robotaxis in the near term is financial suicide.
Musk has been promising “1 million robotaxis by the end of the year” since 2020. It’s now late 2025, and while we have seen progress, we only have a small pilot program in a geo-fenced area in Texas under constant supervision, and certainly don’t have a fleet of appreciating assets.
If you bought a Tesla for $50,000 in 2022 expecting it to be worth $100,000 today, you are likely disappointed. If you bought 4,000 of them with borrowed money, you are Mistergreen.
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Kia is offering generous discounts on its EVs with low finance rates and thousands in savings across its entire lineup.
What deals is Kia currently running on its EVs?
After launching a promotion in the US offering over $10,000 off the EV6, EV9, and Niro EV this month, Kia is now extending the savings overseas.
Kia introduced a New Year’s offer in the UK on Tuesday, offering savings across its entire range, including electric vehicles.
The new deal offers generous finance deposit contributions (FDC) of up to £3,000 ($4,000) toward all EV3 models, plus the EV4 GT-Line and GT-Line S trims. A £1,500 ($2,000) FDC is available toward the EV4 Fastback (sedan), EV5, EV6, EV6 GT, EV9, and EV9 GT. The EV4 Air grade is available with a £1,000 ($1,300) FDC.
Kia is also offering a low 3.9% APR across its entire EV lineup, considerably lower than the 5.9% APR for the new Sportage and the 7.9% APR for the Picanto, K4, Niro PHEV, and Sorento.
And that’s not all. Current Kia drivers looking to upgrade can save an extra £1,000 ($1,300) with the “Kia EV Finance Upgrade” loyalty incentive.
The New Year’s EV deals run from December 17, 2025, to March 31, 2026. Kia is also offering two years of free service on all electric models through its “Discover Your Kia EV” campaign, available on all EV3, EV4, EV4 Fastback, EV5, EV6, EV9, and PV5 Passenger grades and variants.
On Friday, the EV4 and PV5 Passenger became the brand’s first vehicle eligible for the UK’s Electric Car Grant. Buyers can now earn £1,500 ($2,000) off the on-the-road purchase price for the EV4 Air and PV5 Passenger Essential and Plus trims.
Although not exactly a promotion, Kia launched the EV4 as Canada’s most affordable EV this week. Starting at under $40,000, Kia’s electric sedan (fastback) is even cheaper than the tiny Fiat 500e.
For those in the US, don’t worry, Kia is offering some pretty great year-end deals, including over $10,000 in savings across its entire EV lineup.
The 2025 Kia EV6 and Niro EV are available with up to $11,000 in customer cash, while the larger EV9 is listed with $10,500 in customer cash.
If you’re looking to finance, Kia is offering 0% APR for up to 72 months, plus $3,500 APR Bonus Cash on the EV6 and Niro EV. The three-row Kia EV9 is available with 0% APR for up to 60 months and a $3,000 APR Bonus Cash offer. In the US, Kia’s “New Traditions” sales event runs until January 2, 2026.
Kia’s deals are generous, but its sister company, Hyundai, may have it beat. You can lease a Hyundai IONIQ 5 right now for as low as $189 per month. That’s about as cheap as EV leases get right now.
If you’re wondering what deals are available in your area, you can find local offers using the links below.
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