The work undertaken on this project was broadly split into planning, execution, and evaluation.
During Month 1, the team undertook the planning of the project in order to determine all aspects required to achieve the objectives of the project proposal. In addition during this time we conducted the procurement of equipment, and obtained permission from vessel owners for access to vessels.
February, March and April were spent out in the field obtaining information and data from a broad range of stakeholders - this information gathering varied from meetings with both government bodies, customers, suppliers and field data collection of vessel movement, energy consumption and general customer needs.
Data Collected during course of Project
1. Vessel Electrical Load, typical and peak
2. Vessel time spent consuming electricity while stationary.
3. Installed generator size
4. Generator fuel consumption rates
5. Price of diesel
6. Servicing costs of diesel generator
7. Cost of technology and performance requirements
8. Emissions related to diesel fuel consumption
9. Regulations regarding emissions, carbon trading etc
10. Information gathered through regular meetings with customers, government agencies, and supply chain partners.
11. Technical and commercial risk assessment and appraisal.
During the later stages of the project, (Months 4 & 5), this information was then analysed through the use of numerical modelling in order to quantify, and qualify the impact of the problem, and how far the application of the proposed technology can go to solving.
The key conclusions of this project are as follows:
1) Vessels spend a significant amount of money on the provision of electrical power when in port. From our research, we found that the average vessel spends approximately 80% of its time in port, and will typically be running a diesel generator constantly to provide electrical power.
2) The cost of running a generator (capex and opex excluding fuel) can be expressed as a cost per hour, because the generator service schedule and lifespan is expressed in hours. This figure can range from 1 euro per hour to over 2.5 euro per hour depending on the vessel.
3) We have created economic models which account for the vessel generator size, generator running cost, fuel cost, average electrical load to calculate savings of both CO2 emissions and cash, and return on investment of an in house developed renewable energy and / or energy efficiency systems.
4) The estimated return on investment calculated is highly dependent on the specific vessel parameters, with generator running cost, fuel cost, and generator utilisation time varying dramatically from vessel to vessel. Given a specific set of vessel parameters we are now able to rapidly evaluate potential systems.
6) Our research shows that there are no insurmountable technical or commercial risks to the proposed system, or directly comparable competitors.
7) By examining different means to prevent this fuel usage using known technology through evaluating the case studies in terms of emissions we believe there is the potential to save up to a maximum of 7308kT of Co2 emissions each year from the shipping sector, with a global market size of €2.9b.
The results of this work were disseminated from our company stand during Sea Fest 2017 in Galway Ireland. We continue to welcome any interest in the project and can be contacted at
info@daretech.ie
