Numerical investigation of photovoltaic solar system performance for a high-speed ship

Abstract Maritime transportation has a remarkable contribution to the increase of pollutant gases in the atmosphere and adapting alternative energy systems to ship’s main power grid is an effective method to both save energy and reduce the amount of emission gases. The concept of green shipping is now becoming an important issue for ship owners, shipping lines, and shipbuilders globally. Solar energy may supply an environmentally friendly part of the total energy balance of a ship. Egypt is in the world’s solar belt and has excellent solar energy availability. Therefore, the present work aims to present a case study for installing a photovoltaic solar system onboard a passenger/Ro-Ro ship sailing between Safaga Port in Egypt and Yanbu Port in Saudi Arabia. Meteorological data for Safaga and Yanbu sailing route is presented to calculate the output power of that system. The proposed ship is designed to accommodate 843 passengers and 227 cars. The solar system onboard the ship has been modeled based on the available weather deck and bridge deck areas. The solar system will be composed of 1229 solar panels with 565 batteries. The proposed solar system will produce 1625 kWh/day used for the hoteling system of the ship. As a result of the calculations, 0.333 tons of low Sulphur fuel oil is saved in a day by the generators over the designed solar system. It is found significant environmental impacts within the calculation. By adopting such a solar system to the vessel, it is determined that there is a decrease of 0.27 tons of SOx, 7 tons of NOx, 415 tons of CO2, and 0.18 tons of PM emission that occur during the operations annually. A cost analysis is conducted to assess the economic benefits of the installed system. It shows that the proposed solar system will save 326,000 $ per year in addition to being clean to the environment, less emissions, and green ship.