Smart port: Exploiting renewable energy and storage potential of moored boats

This paper presents a statistical and techno-economic feasibility study for the exploitation of renewable energy generators and energy storage devices typically installed onboard pleasure boats to transform harbors and ports in energy districts able to exchange energy with the grid. In Europe about 48 million citizens regularly participate in recreational marine activities (36 million of whom are boaters), as well as countless numbers of tourists. Over 6 million boats are kept in European waters while 4,500 marinas provide 1.75 million berths both inland and in coastal areas [1]. Thanks to the proposed Smart Port concept, this scenario could be considered as an energy resource to improve renewable energy penetration and enlarge European grid storage capacity with negligible investments by exploiting existing facilities. Starting from statistics assessment of ports and boats present on the Mediterranean Shore [2] (particularly in Liguria region) and considering data related to the Italian national electric market (daily spread between minimum and maximum price of electricity, daily renewable energy production and their impact on the price [3]), different scenarios are analyzed according to different kind of generators (photovoltaics, wind) and storage technologies [4] (batteries, hydrogen) commonly used in the nautical sector in order to study the most profitable solutions. A case study in Italy is presented and the expected impacts in terms of yearly renewable deliverable energy, storage capacity, CO2 emission savings and money savings for boat owners and port managers is shown. This framework is analyzed at the present conditions and looking throughout future scenario that will include an increase of the number of electrical boats, a variable price of electricity and a decreasing price of batteries and hydrogen equipments as storage technologies. Considering the number of boats actually moored in the Italian marinas and equipped with renewable generators, relevant installation capital costs could be saved while the structural improvements that should be made to the ports are limited to the electrical connections and the smart control systems transforming it in an energy district able to interact with the electrical market through the national grid as a renewable generator or an energy buffer useful to the grid balance. The first required investment for the port will be the installation of bidirectional POD (point of delivery) and energy-meters, in order to make boats able to exchange energy with the grid while they are moored. It is important to underline that smart controls have to be investigated in order to guarantee a relevant state of charge of boats batteries. Suitable Business models enabling the exploitation of this new concept are shown. These models take into account the compensation rules to refund boat owners and other stakeholders, allowing sufficient profit margin to ports which would become actors in the energy market, interacting with the national grid as a RES producer, consumers and an electrical storages.