Optimal Tilt Angle of Photovoltaic Arrays and Economic Allocation of Energy Storage System on Large Oil Tanker Ship

Abstract

This study optimizes the tilt angle of photovoltaic (PV) panels on a large oil tanker ship system and considers the impact of partial shading to improve the performance of the PV system. This work presents a novel method that considers the difference between the expected and real outputs of PV modules to optimize the size of energy storage system (ESS). The method also takes into account the cost of wasted power, the capital cost of the system, fuel cost and the CO2 emissions. Unlike on land, power generation using a PV on a ship depends on the date, latitude and longitude of the navigation. Accordingly, this work considers a route from Dalian in China to Aden in Yemen, accounting for the seasonal and geographical variations of solar irradiation. This proposed method adopts five conditions associated with the navigation route to model the total shipload. Various cases are discussed in detail to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.

Keywords

• tilt angle
• photovoltaic (PV) panels
• oil tanker ship system
• energy storage system (ESS)
• CO2 emissions