Economics of marinised offshore charging stations for electrifying the maritime sector

Abstract

Electrification of international maritime transport, despite rapidly falling battery prices and improvements in battery technologies, remains constrained by midway charging, as the range of electric ocean-going vehicles is limited on a full charge. Before countries pour trillions of dollars of investment, this study is commissioned as the first attempt to investigate the economics of offshore marinised charging stations for enabling long-distance shipping by full-electric vessels. Three offshore power generation technologies, namely, wind, solar, and floating nuclear power plants, are compared to demonstrate the economics of offshore charging stations. Compared to conventional vessels using bunker fuels, full-electric vessels are cost competitive even under the assumed first-of-a-kind costs. Among the three offshore power sources compared in this study, a marinised charging station with floating nuclear power plant is shown to be the most cost-competitive. Despite the absence of a pilot project, the technoeconomic parameters as assumed in this study serve as important reference indicators for decision makers to consider when building an ecosystem for sustainable international shipping.