The Feasibility of Using Zero-Emission Electric Boats to Enhance the Techno-Economic Performance of an Ocean-Energy-Supported Coastal Hotel Building

Abstract

The topics of zero-emission/energy buildings and electric mobility are increasingly being discussed as solutions to alleviate the environmental burden caused by energy consumption and CO2 emissions in both sectors. This study investigates a zero-energy hotel building supported by a hybrid ocean renewable energy system, which interacts with several zero-emission electric boats. Nine different combinations of floating photovoltaics (FPV) and wave energy converters (WEC) are investigated to compensate for their different fluctuations and the stochasticity of energy generation. Using TRNSYS 18 to perform modeling and simulation, a comprehensive techno-economic-environmental analysis of the hybrid system was conducted. The results indicate that when the total annual generation ratios of WEC and FPV are 76% and 24%, respectively, this combination can achieve the best energy weighted matching index (WMI). The WMI reached its maximum (0.703) when 16 boats were sailing at 15 km/h for a distance of 7.5 km. However, increasing the number of boats to 16 does not help improve economic returns or reduce the annual operational equivalent CO2 emission factor of the hybrid system. Depending on the maximum number of electric boats designed for this study, the non-dominated WMI would be limited to 0.654.