Objectives of the service
Shipping is under enormous pressure to decarbonise, and wind propulsion systems and other Energy Saving Technologies (ESTs) are being installed at pace across the global fleet. Yet shipowners and technology manufacturers all share the same frustrating blind spot: nobody can reliably prove how much fuel these technologies actually save under real operational conditions.
WING IT addresses this with highly accurate vessel performance modelling, trained on high-frequency operational data and high-quality, satellite-calibrated hindcast weather data. The service reconstructs how a vessel would have performed on the same voyage without the technology, isolating the real saving. The same models show how a ship performs over time and how it can operate at its best.
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
WING IT serves the parties who carry the risk and need the proof, primarily in the Netherlands and Northern Europe, with relevance across the global fleet.
Shipowners and operators are the core users. Every voyage, they make decisions worth thousands of euros in fuel, and every retrofit is an investment of hundreds of thousands. They need:
Proof of what an installed Energy Saving Technology actually saves, voyage by voyage
A precise view of how each vessel performs, catching hull fouling and the effect of operational changes early
A reliable answer before they invest: how a technology would perform on their own ship and routes
Demand turned out to be broader than expected. Shipowners engaged in the study want this precision on any vessel, not only those fitted with Energy Saving Technologies.
Technology manufacturers, such as wind propulsion suppliers, know their own system but not the ship it is fitted to. They need independent proof of the fuel saving at vessel level: a credible third-party number that sells their technology better than their own estimate.
The study showed that WING IT delivers what both groups need: a saving of a few percent, isolated from the noise of weather, loading and route, on a real ship.
Service/ system concept
WING IT answers a question the shipping industry has long struggled with: how is this ship really performing, and what is a technology on board actually saving?
The service brings together three data streams. Onboard sensors record speed, fuel consumption and engine load. Satellite-calibrated hindcast weather data from Hermess describes the waves, wind and currents the ship actually sailed through. AlbatrosDigital’s physics-informed machine learning combines both into a digital twin of the specific vessel.
That digital twin supports three services:
- Pre-investment consultancy: simulating how a technology would perform on a specific ship and its routes, before the investment is made
- Performance monitoring and verification: comparing the vessel’s real performance with a “ghost voyage”, the same ship on the same route without the technology, to isolate the actual saving and track performance over time
- Voyage planning: running the model forward to predict fuel consumption and duration for planned voyages
Space Added Value
A ship’s fuel consumption depends as much on the sea as on the ship. Wind, waves and currents can change the power needed for the same voyage by tens of percent, while an Energy Saving Technology often saves only a few. To find that saving, the model has to know the conditions the ship actually sailed through, accurately. Space data makes that possible.
- Earth Observation: satellite altimeters (including Sentinel-6 and other ESA and international missions) measure wave height, and scatterometers measure wind. Hermess uses these observations to check and calibrate weather model data along the exact route a vessel has sailed.
- Satellite AIS: the speed and course of passing ships reveal the currents along shipping lanes, where direct current measurements are scarce.
- Satellite navigation: Galileo and other GNSS systems provide accurate vessel position and speed over ground, for precise route reconstruction.
- Satellite communications: enable the transfer of onboard operational data from vessel to shore.
The study showed how much this matters. In an independent comparison of eighteen weather data sources against real vessel data, the choice of source alone changed prediction accuracy by up to a factor of two. Accurate, satellite-calibrated hindcast weather data is not an add-on to WING IT: it is what makes precise vessel performance modelling possible.
Current Status
The WING IT feasibility study (ESA contract 4000150124/2025/UK/AL/ka) ran from September 2025 to September 2026 and has been completed successfully.
Proof of Concept on a real vessel. WING IT was demonstrated on Carisbrooke Shipping’s general cargo vessel Vectis Progress, retrofitted with a GT Wings AirWing wind propulsion system. Four years of operational data were used to build a digital twin of the vessel. Tested on voyages it had never seen, the model reproduced total fuel consumption to within 4% on average. On that basis, WING IT isolated a statistically significant fuel saving from the AirWing. The result held up across three independent weather sources, and both Carisbrooke Shipping and GT Wings agreed on the outcome.
Space data proven to matter. Satellite calibration improved the accuracy of wave data along vessel routes, and satellite AIS showed clear potential for estimating currents along shipping lanes. An independent comparison of eighteen weather data sources confirmed that data quality is a decisive factor in accurate vessel performance modelling.
Commercial demand confirmed. Shipowners confirmed pricing for the service, and a wind propulsion technology supplier is already a paying customer. Demand extends beyond Energy Saving Technologies to accurate performance monitoring on any vessel.
Next step. AlbatrosDigital and Hermess are preparing a Demonstration Project to scale WING IT into a fully operational service for shipowners.
Prime Contractor(s)
Subcontractor(s)
