Sustainable solar energy potential on marine passenger ships of Bay of Bengal: A way of reducing carbon dioxide emissions and disaster risk reduction

Abstract

In Bangladesh, there are roughly 31 marine passenger ships that are in operation. These ships might be a good location for solar photovoltaic (PV) plants since solar energy is the best renewable energy to replace the fossil fuel used in the ships. A “tower rounded flower-shaped solar PV” system of PV panel arrangement—just looks like a “sunflower,” is proposed in this research. To harness maximum power, solar towers are designed in such a way that they may be freely rotated on their vertical axes and that the tilt angles of their solar panels can be adjusted from 0° to 50° on their horizontal axes freely. The “tower rounded flower-shaped solar PV” architecture of the PV array atop a maritime vessel is presented in this research along with a unique method for calculating the PV system's anticipated energy production. Finally calculated the realistic CO 2 emission reduction by using this approach for a sustainable future. Applying globalsolaratlas (for horizon and sun's path estimation); PVsyst 7.2, HOMER Pro, and NREL's PVWatt calculator (for solar radiation calculation); vesselfinder (for the number of vessels analysis); shiptraffic (for vessels path analysis), this research suggests that marine passenger vessels are one of the best places to construct a proposed “tower rounded flower-shaped solar PV” power plant. According to estimates, 17 passenger ships can produce roughly 1240 MW of electricity per year and may save approximately 325.56 tons of CO 2 gas emissions annually to the environment per year as compared to using fossil fuel-based power plants to produce electricity.