The Global Center for Maritime Decarbonization (GCMD), in collaboration with AIM Horizon Investments and Eastern Pacific Shipping (EPS), has announced the financing of two wind-assisted propulsion systems (WAPS) projects through the Fund for Energy Efficiency Technologies (FEET). This initiative represents the inaugural deployment of the fund, which aims to connect verified fuel and regulatory savings from energy efficiency technologies (EETs) installed on vessels to a pay-as-you-save model. FEET provides up to 100% upfront financing via a blended finance structure and is managed by AIM Horizon Investments, with GCMD serving as the decarbonization advisor.
The first projects financed under this fund involve the installation of wind-assisted propulsion systems on the vessels MV Pacific Sentinel and MV Pacific Sunstone. Each vessel has been fitted with three 22-meter suction sails, making them pioneers in the EPS fleet to utilize WAPS technology. This deployment builds upon a previous collaboration between GCMD and EPS, which focused on developing a methodology to quantify fuel savings from the WAPS on the MV Pacific Sentinel.
To accurately assess the impact of the retrofit while accounting for variations in operating conditions, GCMD collected an extensive dataset of 276 million data points over a four-month period of spot-market trading in the Americas. From this data, 203 valid on-off transitions were analyzed to evaluate performance. Moving forward, FEET will utilize this independent methodology to calculate fuel savings for the financed WAPS projects, ensuring that the data is audited and the savings verified for payment determinations from shipowners.
