Photovoltaic Potential of the Dutch Inland Shipping Fleet: An Experimentally Validated Method to Simulate the Power Series from Vessel‐Integrated Photovoltaics

Abstract

Despite a drop during the COVID pandemic, the CO 2 emission from transportation has increased again. Globally, transportation emitted 8.5 Gton of CO 2 in 2019, [1] which accounts for 14% of CO 2 emissions, including water-based transportation. [2] Waterbased transportation emits % 2% of the global CO 2 . [1] Several subsectors of transportation, such as trucks and buses, aviation, and shipping, are not on track with meeting the global targets. Only EVs are growing rapidly but no direct impact on CO 2 reduction has been observed yet [3] as EVs are charged by grid electricity that is still dominated by fossil fuels. This imposes the necessity to introduce renewable energy, both in the grid and onboard vehicles, to achieve the actual reduction of CO 2 . [4] Large transportation vehicles, such as trailers and vessels, benefit from relatively large areas, where conventional photovoltaic (PV) technologies can be integrated. [5][6][7] Therefore, to make the transportation sector more sustainable, the surface of vessels can also be used for onboard PV module installation.The Netherlands has the largest fleet in Europe, making up 38.4% of the European shipping fleet. [8] As the largest European fleet, the Dutch inland shipping industry aims to be climate neutral and emissionfree by 2050. To meet this goal, the propulsion of the inland shipping vessels needs to change from diesel-powered to dieselelectric (short term), battery-electric (medium term), and hydrogen-fuel cell (long term). [9] The inland fleet consists of 5060 vessels, with various types, such as general cargo vessels. [10] General cargo vessels seem to be suitable for the implementation of PV modules. There are a couple of advantages of these vessel types that make them suitable for the implementation of PV modules. These ships have little equipment installed on top of their deck. General cargo ships have a relatively large surface area that is only used to store goods, the hold, which can be smartly integrated with PV modules (see Figure 1 as an example). Above this hold, PV modules can be integrated. All ships of this type look similar. The ship is designed as rectangular as possible, to be able to transport as many goods as possible onboard. The wheelhouse is located at the back, before that there is the hold of the vessel. After the vessel's hold, there is a small part that contains the necessary equipment, such as anchors and cranes. From the complete inland shipping fleet, 79% of the vessels are general cargo inland vessels. [10] As electric vessels have batteries onboard, one can envision a fleet of urban vessels as a fleet of small PV power plants that supply power to the electrical grid whenever needed. Decentralized energy production will also lower the power losses due to less transmission. The same applies to electric cars or future solar cars.However, assessing the PV power that a vehicle can produce is challenging. [11] Unlike a stationary PV plant, modules on a vehicle move around and their ambient and surrounding changes.

The Time-Series Production Simulation in Cost Management of New Energy Grid Connection Under the Internet of Things

“…The simulation of photovoltaic time-series production first uses a deterministic global solar radiation model to simulate the upper limit value of photovoltaic output, and then models the stochastic part of output using photovoltaic shading factors [33], [34]. Considering the random effects of cloud cover, weather changes, and altitude on photovoltaic output, the deterministic and stochastic simulation results are integrated to accurately reproduce the information of the light area, providing a scientific and effective basis for simulating the operation of photovoltaic output time series.…”

Vehicle‐Integrated Photovoltaics Irradiation Modeling Using Aerial‐Based LIDAR Data and Validation with Trip Measurements

“…Their measurement data record the PV module's voltage and current at a rate of 0.0017 Hz, location, orientation, ambient temperature, and wind speed. de Jong and Ziar [ 20 ] verify their model using the PV module power output, which includes not only irradiance but also the influence of the module's temperature.…”

“…De Jong et al [ 20 ] implement an irradiance model based on the Perez All‐Weather sky model and the digital surface topography data. They use the nearest weather station to obtain the hourly GHI irradiance values for the irradiance data.…”

“…We compare our and [ 14 ] experiment setups in Section 2.2. De Jong et al [ 20 ] analyzed the PV potential of the Dutch inland shipping fleet. They implement an irradiance and temperature model and validate it with the measurement sensor data collected on a boat.…”

Impact of additional PV weight on the energy consumption of electric vehicles with onboard PV

“…In terms of control electronics, studies have been conducted to determine the required response times for onboard PV maximum power point trackers (MPPTs) [7] and the design of DC-DC circuits [8]. Various approaches to model the energy yield for onboard PV applications have also been published in [9]- [12]. Measurement campaigns to estimate the PV resource for onboard PV have been reported and are ongoing [13]- [15].…”