I’m building the first net-positive sailing ship — on a startup budget

After a rewarding 17 years helping to build a $100m data business, I wanted, like many, to do something impactful. Something that fused my knowledge of engineering and data science skills to really make a difference to the planet we live on. 

DRIFT Energy started on a summer walk with my son, then six years old, who pointed to a wind turbine on the horizon and asked why it wasn’t turned on. I explained that there was no wind to drive it, to which he replied, “Then why don’t they make one that follows the wind?”.

I had spent my whole career solving problems, whether they be engineering, business, or technology related. This was a challenge that I felt I had to rise to, one that was bigger than all the rest. 

Following the wind

I describe DRIFT as the most capital-efficient, clean tech startup in the world. We offer a new class of mobile, renewable energy that is independent of power grids. 

High performance sailing vessels harness deep ocean wind to produce green energy at sea and deliver it globally. They do this using an AI-enabled vessel routing algorithm that enables them to find and stay in optimum, weather conditions. 

In a nutshell, our energy harvesting yachts don’t wait for the wind, they follow the wind.

With the ocean covering 70% of the globe, I believe that this is a planet-scale solution to the myriad of challenges faced by global communities grappling with the clean energy transition. We are viable in more places and can produce more power, more of the time. 

Our hardware assets, our sailing vessels, are easier to maintain than other offshore infrastructure assets, such as wind turbines. The complete solution is crucially up to ten times faster to implement. 

Having said that, I absolutely see our technology as an ‘and’ solution, creating a faster, viable option that complements existing renewable energy sources such as static offshore wind and solar. 

World’s first net-positive ship

DRIFT is backed by leading deep tech venture capital investors Octopus Ventures, Founders Factory, and the Blue Action Lab. We also won a major grant from Innovate UK. These investments are a vital step in developing and building what I believe will be the world’s first net positive ship.

We refer to our ships as ‘fishing vessels for energy’. As they move through the water, turbines on the underside of the hull convert kinetic energy into electric energy that feeds an onboard electrolyser. Through the process of electrolysis, water is then split into green hydrogen and oxygen. 

Solar panels onboard also harvest clean energy to power the ship’s batteries, so we essentially leave nothing behind but pure oxygen.

Green hydrogen can be used to power many different sectors, including grid energy, land based and seagoing transport, off-grid net zero hotel complexes, shipping,  and heavy industries such as foundries and distilleries as just a few examples. 

Navigating startup seas

We first demonstrated the production of green hydrogen on a demonstrator yacht at SailGP in 2022, after which an article was published about DRIFT in The Sunday Times – a proud moment. 

As well as numerous high points and accolades along the road so far, we have also confronted the same challenges that all startups face. Namely, balancing huge ambitions with limited resources. 

Raising capital, recruiting talent, and onboarding customers, all while trying to develop a new technology and build a scalable positive business is hard!

What made a real difference for the team at DRIFT is the sheer volume of goodwill that has come to us from public, industry, and government stakeholders. There is just something about that DRIFT lightbulb moment – when you get it, you really get it.  

By Ben Medland, founder and CEO of DRIFT Energy

Ben Medland set up DRIFT Energy Ltd to help tackle what is the most important issue currently facing humanity – climate change. Prior to founding DRIFT, Ben spent 17 years at Accenture as UK Lead Partner, Digital & Data Strategy Practice. Leaving as Managing Director, Ben has a wealth of experience and extensive networks across numerous industries, including energy and utilities, financial services, technology and the public sector. He started his early career with BAE Systems, who sponsored his Masters in Systems Engineering at Loughborough University. Ben also holds data science qualifications from Northwestern University and holds Isambard Kingdom Brunel as one of his heroes.

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