Optimal sizing of hybrid PV/diesel/battery in ship power system

TLDR

Ship power systems are increasingly adopting solar generation and energy storage to comply with the Marine Pollution Protocol, yet improper sizing can raise investment costs and greenhouse gas emissions, especially because PV output varies with navigation route conditions. The study proposes a sizing method that optimizes PV, diesel, and battery capacities in a stand‑alone ship power system to minimize investment, fuel, and CO₂ costs while accounting for seasonal and geographic solar irradiance variations. The method models ship load across five route conditions and corrects PV output by incorporating seasonal and geographic solar irradiance and temperature variations along the Dalian–Aden route. Four case studies demonstrate the algorithm’s applicability.

Abstract

Owing to the strict restrictions imposed by the Marine Pollution Protocol and the rapid development of renewable energy, the use of solar generation and energy storage systems in ship power systems has been increasingly attracting attention. However, the improper sizing of a hybrid power generation system in a ship power system will result in a high investment cost and increased greenhouse gas emission. This paper proposes a method for determining the optimal size of the photovoltaic (PV) generation system, the diesel generator and the energy storage system in a stand-alone ship power system that minimizes the investment cost, fuel cost and the CO2 emissions. The power generation from PV modules on a ship relies on the date, local time, time zone, longitude and latitude along a navigation route and is different from the conditions of power systems on land. Thus, a method, which takes the seasonal and geographical variation of solar irradiations and temperatures along the route from Dalian in China to Aden in Yemen into account, for correcting the output of PV modules is developed in this paper. The proposed method considers five conditions along the navigation route to model the total ship load. Four cases are studied in details to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed algorithm.