In a recent interview with Palo Alto Online, Jeremy Walker, the CEO of KiteShip Corporation made an astounding claim: One trans-ocean container ship outfitted with a traction kite -- essentially a kite surfer's kite on lots and lots of steroids – could save TWO MILLION gallons of fuel per year. The resulting reduction in sulfur dioxide emissions, he claims, would be the equivalent of replacing every automobile in the state of California with a hybrid.

Wow -- what an enormous opportunity to save fuel, money and clean up the environment at the same time!

No wonder, then, that others are jumping into this ring: A German company -- SkySails -- is also racing to turn traction kites into a viable way to tow big ships across the world's oceans. Unlike old-school sails which attach to tall masts and cause ships to heel – not good when they're piled high with containers, as today's ships are -- traction kites are launched from the bow of the ship, fly 100-300 meters above the deck, where winds tend to be stronger and steadier, and cause only negligible heeling. And, they claim, they'll allow skippers to throttle back their big engines around 30% without slowing down.

While the promise is huge – KiteShip recently won the 2006 California Clean Tech Open Transportation award – questions remain. KiteShip's Website features photos and news regarding their innovative kite spinnakers for pleasure sailboats, but only CAD drawings of commercial applications, making me wonder how far along their efforts are at this point.

SkySails site, on the other hand, features a video of a smallish version of their design towing a smallish buoy tender in what they call a "final test before market entry." In addition, it appears they may have commercial shipping clients signed up already.

I'll continue to investigate this promising technology. Who knows? Maybe they can address the safety issues that've plagued the sport of kiteboarding while they're at it.