WING IT | ESA Space Solutions

Objectives of the service

Shipping is under enormous pressure to decarbonise, and wind-assist and other Energy Saving Technologies (ESTs) are being installed at pace across the global fleet. Yet shipowners, technology manufacturers, and financiers all share the same frustrating blind spot: nobody can reliably prove how much fuel these technologies actually save under real operational conditions. Without credible, standardised verification, billions in investment flow on the basis of estimates and vendor claims rather than hard evidence.

WING IT changes that. By fusing vessel-specific digital ship modelling with high-frequency operational data and satellite-derived environmental observations from Earth Observation (EO) missions, the service reconstructs what any given voyage would have consumed without an EST on board. That comparison delivers something the market has never had before: a verified, route-specific, independently produced fuel savings figure that shipowners, technology providers, and financiers can actually rely on.

This feasibility study proves it can be done. Working with real vessel data and engaged industry partners, the team is demonstrating the technical approach, refining the service with target customers, and building the commercial foundation to bring WING IT to market as a scalable, subscription-based business.

Users and their needs

Three distinct user communities are actively engaged in this study, all based primarily in the Netherlands with connections across Northern Europe and the broader international shipping sector.

Shipowners and operators are the primary users of the service. Their needs:

Verified evidence of fuel savings from installed Energy Saving Technologies (ESTs) to support investment decisions and charter negotiations
Operational insight to identify performance differences across routes, crews, and conditions
Credible data for sustainability and regulatory reporting

Wind propulsion technology manufacturers need:

Independent, third-party validation of the savings their systems deliver under real operational conditions
Standardised performance reports to strengthen sales and support client due diligence

Maritime financiers need:

Reliable, auditable savings data to underpin performance-based financing structures such as pay-as-you-save models
Independently verified evidence of payback periods to accurately assess investment risk

The key challenge for the project is producing performance estimates of sufficient accuracy and credibility to be trusted by all three groups simultaneously, despite variability in vessel data quality, operational conditions, and the complexity of isolating the contribution of individual technologies.

Service/ system concept

WING IT gives users a clear, independently verified answer to a question the shipping industry has never been able to answer reliably: how much fuel did our energy-saving technology actually save on this voyage?

Once deployed, users can access route-specific fuel savings reports, live and historical vessel performance dashboards, and structured exports for investment decisions, charter negotiations, and regulatory submissions.

The system works by combining three data streams. Sensors on board record speed, fuel consumption, and engine load. Satellites observe the sea and atmosphere along the route, capturing waves, wind, and currents with far greater precision than standard weather forecasts. A digital model of the specific vessel then simulates how it should have performed under those exact conditions without any energy-saving technology installed. Comparing that simulated baseline against real measurements produces a verified, route-specific fuel saving figure.

The service is delivered as a cloud-based platform, accessible via a web dashboard or an application programming interface (API) for integration into existing operator systems.

Space Added Value

WING IT relies on four categories of space assets, all of which are essential to the credibility of the service.

Earth Observation (EO) satellites, primarily ESA Sentinel missions, provide measurements of wave height (via altimetry), wind speed and direction (via scatterometers). These observations are used to calibrate the environmental model output along the exact route a vessel has sailed, replacing generic forecast data with route-specific, satellite-verified conditions, providing independently verified input for further analysis.

Satellite navigation data, particularly from Galileo, provides accurate vessel position and speed-over-ground, ensuring route reconstruction is precise.

Satellite-based vessel tracking (Automatic Identification System, or AIS) is combined with onboard engine data to estimate ocean currents along the route, a parameter that strongly affects fuel consumption but quality data is scarce.

Satellite communications may be used to enable near-real-time data exchange between vessel and the .

The competitive advantage is significant. Existing tools rely on standard numerical weather forecasts, which contain systematic biases and lack route-specific accuracy. WING IT's satellite calibration removes those biases, making the simulated baseline far more accurate, producing auditable, route-specific fuel-saving estimates for ships equipped with Energy Saving Technologies.

Current Status

The WING IT feasibility study started in September 2025 and is on schedule.

Completed: Project initiation is closed. High-frequency operational data from seven short sea vessels has been secured and ingested. AIS data has been procured. The satellite-calibrated weather data service has been set up and a working API endpoint is live and documented. Vessel performance models have been successfully run on real operational data, producing initial fuel consumption estimates. Multiple machine learning approaches have been tested and show significant accuracy improvements over baseline models.

In progress: Testing of satellite-calibrated versus standard environmental data is ongoing. A first prototype dashboard for presenting results to end users is under development. One in-depth stakeholder interview with a ship operator has been completed.

Starting next: Additional structured interviews with shipowners and wind propulsion manufacturers. Full proof of concept validation runs on operational vessel data.