Americas News
Satellite Companies Sign Deal For Real-Time Monitoring of Vessel Emissions, Fuel Consumption
U.S.-based telecommunications company Harris Corporation has a signed a deal with a Canada-based satellite company to provide real-time monitoring of vessels at sea, including metrics such as fuel consumption and emissions, Canadian media reports.
Under the terms of the partnership, ExactEarth's satellite technology will be installed on 58 of Harris' communication satellites, with the first one to be launched in March 2016.
"It is the culmination of the vision that we started with six years ago," said ExactEarth CEO Peter Mabson.
The company says already tracks 120,000 ships globally using eight satellites, producing 7 million reports per day with a 30 minute delay in the transfer of information from satellite to ground.
The new network of satellites will make the data available immediately, says Mabson, and the expanded data "opens up a new range of vessel-tracking services that require rapid updates."
"Now we are talking about a global market of $600 million in 2018," he said.
"That is up significantly from the market potential of $100 million in 2018 using the current system for tracking ships."
The company said that it plans to develop new applications using the data in the future, for example an alarm for when ships veer off course.
Earlier this month, Applied Weather Technology released its new monitoring service aimed at helping ships reduce their carbon footprint.
