Techno economic study of potential using solar energy as a supporting power supply for diesel engine for landing craft

Abstract

Increasing price of oil and the concern of maintaining clean environme nt have become the main reasons for a shipping company to focus on the vessel fuel consumption. Fuel economy has become a major concern due to the increasing of oil price. The availability of fossil fuels is lim ited and depleting day by day as the consumption is increasing very rapidly. Environmental impact by diesel exhaust is also taken into consideration as diesel exhaust is a complex mixture of thousands of gases and fine particles ( commonly known as soot) that contains more than 40 toxic air contaminants. These include many known or suspecte d cancer-causing substances, such as benzene, arsenic and formaldehyde. As for these matters, renewable energy is said to have potential in replacing fossil fuels in providing energy and is more environmental friendly. Solar energy represents one of the best practice available alternative energy to mitigate this challe nge. Solar energy can assist in supporting auxiliary power for the instrument on board vessel such as landing craft. This study will determine the potential of using solar PV system onboard a landing craft by analyzing the reduction usage of fuel and diesel exhaust as well as carrying out economical analysis. The power requirement for the vessel was calculated. Fuel and money saved by using solar panels were obtained and comparison between data of using diesel alone and using solar panels as supporting power supply were analyzed. Economical analysis were obtained by determining data of cost estimation, cash flow diagram, Annual Average Cost (ACC), and return investment of both vessel with the support of solar PV system and without solar PV system.