Experimental and techno-economic feasibility analysis of renewable energy technologies for Jabel Ali Port in UAE

Abstract

Due to the excessive amount of exhaust gas emitted by its activities, the seaport is considered to be one of the sources of the deterioration of the marine environment. In addition, most seaports rely on the National Grid as an energy source to meet domestic and ship power needs. However, nowadays, the maritime industry requires an environmentally-friendly operation of seaports. This paper presents a summary discussion of the concept of green ports and some of their aspects. It further offers a bird-eye view of some of their applications worldwide. Meanwhile, an initiative is made to attempt applying renewable energy power sources to a selected case-study; “Port of Jabel Ali”, to examine the feasibility of applying such aspects of the green port concept to this port. A prototype experiment is setup to assess the wind and solar potential in the region, aided with a simulation model using HOMER™ software, to verify the experimental results and to confirm the principle. Results show that the three selected cases show promising performances while applying the renewable energy application through the maritime port with the main grid. When the solar PV system is applied to the system, a total cost reduction of 10% is achieved as well as a 10.5% reduction in levelized cost of energy. When the wind farm system is applied, 20.8% cost reduction with corresponding 21% lower levelized cost of energy is achieved. Therefore, the wind farm and solar PV system achieve 28.7% cost reduction and 31.8% reduction of the levelized cost of energy.