Solar, wind and nuclear power to the ports

Dr Will Beer, owner of environmental consultancy, Tunley Environmental, on shoreside carbon reduction strategies.

What fast track renewable power options are available to ports to lower their carbon footprint and long term energy bills?

Many ports are grappling with this complex issue especially with funding available in the US via the Inflation Reduction Act and the EPA Clean Ports Program, in the UK via funding like the Clean Maritime Demonstration Competition (CMDC) and in Europe via the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) for Transport.

Our advice is to move fast as the cost of installation can be high and ports should seize the Government incentives as soon as they become available to mitigate capital expenditure. Often there are a collection of local and national funding pots available at the same time and it is vital to apply for all grants your port is eligible for.

Having advised a number of ports on large scale net zero plans two forms of renewable energy we really like are solar panels and wind turbines. These are relatively easy to deploy and provide great long term return on investment for electricity hungry ports.

Solar is the coming power and the next decade is set to see the dawn of new solar age. Solar panels now occupy an area around half that of Wales and generate around 6pc of the world’s electricity. The growth is exponential with installed solar roughly doubling in capacity globally every three years. The Economist reports solar cells are likely to be the single biggest source of electrical power by the mid 2030s and that may grow to being the largest source of all energy by the mid 2040s. The big benefit being that, based on current trends, the electricity they produce is set to be half as expensive as the cheapest electricity available today. Moreover, the price of sunlight cannot be rigged like fossil fuels by unstable or unfriendly parts of the world.

So what can ports do? Unused roof space on terminals and warehouses are ideal for panels. The Ports of Los Angeles and Rotterdam are already deploying solar with Rotterdam installing 89 MWp of solar capacity on port building roofs. The Port of Rotterdam Authority says the overall solar potential on port building roofs is between 130 and 150 MWp, implying that there is still room for expansion. The port is also embracing innovation and is planning on building a floating solar park on 80 hectares of water at the De Slufter dredging depot.  The park could have an installed capacity of around 128 MWp, making it Europe’s largest floating solar park.

In Los Angeles meanwhile, the Port has installed nearly 3 MW of photovoltaic (PV) solar power systems, with a goal of having 10 MW of solar power, approximately one-sixth of the Port’s current power demand. The installations are a mix of rooftop, parking lot and underutilized ground-mount site locations.

A word of caution with solar. The installation costs can be compromised by the removal of asbestos from roofs which can be expensive in the short term. However, over the long term the savings will be considerable as solar costs are much more stable and set to be dramatically cheaper than current forms of electricity.

Where installation is typically less troublesome is for onshore wind turbines. A single turbine can be installed at a port in an area of land equivalent to a car parking space. And then the power generated is formidable. The average onshore wind turbine has a capacity of 2–3 MW and can produce over 6 million kWh of electricity per year. This is enough to power around 1,500 average households so cuts into a significant amount of the power needed for a port. If you have space for more than one turbine the port could even sell clean power back to the grid for wider industrial or community use.

As a wild card at Tunley we think ports could consider being the location for small modular nuclear reactors (SMR) which have the capacity to power not just the port but an entire city. While there is much work to be done on reassuring industry and communities, nuclear is increasingly being seen as a silver bullet in the maritime industry particularly as carbon free source of fuel for ships requiring vast amount of energy. But attention is also turning to ports. The Belledune Port Authority (BPA) in Canada wants to use advanced SMR technology as part of a future expansion at the port in northern New Brunswick.

The BPA has announced it is working on a proposal to use ARC Clean Technology Canada’s (ARC) reactor design to generate a minimum of 1GW of zero-emission heat and power for expanded hydrogen production and other industries based at the port, such as metal fabrication and advanced manufacturing.

The ACR is a 100 MWe advanced sodium-cooled fast neutron SMR, which is based on the Experimental Breeder Reactor-II integral sodium-cooled fast reactor prototype which operated at the USA’s Argonne National Laboratory from 1961 until 1994.The project could reach commercial operation between 2030 and 2035, subject to feasibility studies, environmental approvals and licensing from the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, the port said.

While all these power technologies have their strengths and weaknesses the direction of travel is firmly with renewable sources. Ports weighing up their options will be aware of the increasing regulatory and societal pressure to improve air quality by reducing reliance on fossil fuels for docked ships and port equipment like cranes and trucks. While up front costs may be high and electrical infrastructure may need to be modified to accommodate new energy storage batteries and grid integration, taking no action could be very costly in the long term.

Our advice is to assess your baseline carbon emissions, see where your emission pain points are and what solutions are most suited to you. Funding is available now to help you meet the costs, and further down the line the cost of electricity generated by the likes of solar, wind and nuclear will be massively less compared to fossil fuels. Furthermore, embracing renewables will boost your reputation with key stakeholders and your local community. You can show that your port cares and is taking bold imaginative action to improve air quality for your workers and local families for generations to come.

News Source: https://splash247.com/solar-wind-and-nuclear-power-to-the-ports/