Powering an island energy system by offshore floating technologies towards 100% renewables: A case for the Maldives

Dominik Keiner; Orlando Salcedo-Puerto; Ekaterina Immonen; Wilfried G.J.H.M. van Sark; Yoosuf Nizam; Fathmath Shadiya; Justine Duval; Timur Delahaye; Ashish Gulagi; Christian Breyer

doi:10.1016/j.apenergy.2021.118360

Powering an island energy system by offshore floating technologies towards 100% renewables: A case for the Maldives

Dominik Keiner^*, Orlando Salcedo-Puerto, Ekaterina Immonen, Wilfried G.J.H.M. van Sark, Yoosuf Nizam, Fathmath Shadiya, Justine Duval, Timur Delahaye, Ashish Gulagi, Christian Breyer

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

Low-lying coastal areas and archipelago countries are particularly threatened by the impacts of climate change. Concurrently, many island states still rely on extensive use of imported fossil fuels, above all diesel for electricity generation, in addition to hydrocarbon-based fuels to supply aviation and marine transportation. Land area is usually scarce and conventional renewable energy solutions cannot be deployed in a sufficient way. This research highlights the possibility of floating offshore technologies being able to fulfil the task of replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy solutions in challenging topographical areas. On the case of the Maldives, floating offshore solar photovoltaics, wave power and offshore wind are modelled on a full hourly resolution in two different scenarios to deal with the need of transportation fuels: By importing the necessary, carbon neutral synthetic e-fuels from the world market, or by setting up local production capacities for e-fuels. Presented results show that a fully renewable energy system is technically feasible in 2030 with a relative cost per final energy of 120.3 €/MWh and 132.1 €/MWh, respectively, for the two scenarios in comparison to 105.7 €/MWh of the reference scenario in 2017. By 2050, cost per final energy can be reduced to 77.6 €/MWh and 92.6 €/MWh, respectively. It is concluded that floating solar photovoltaics and wave energy converters will play an important role in defossilisation of islands and countries with restricted land area.

Original language	English
Article number	118360
Pages (from-to)	1-20
Journal	Applied Energy
Volume	308
Early online date	Feb 2022
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2021.118360
Publication status	Published - 15 Feb 2022

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
The authors gratefully acknowledge the public financing of European Union's Horizon 2020 and Green Deal research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 953016 (SERENDI-PV) and No 101036457 (EU-SCORES).

Funding Information:
The authors gratefully acknowledge the public financing of European Union’s Horizon 2020 and Green Deal research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 953016 (SERENDI-PV) and No 101036457 (EU-SCORES).

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Author(s)

Funding

The authors gratefully acknowledge the public financing of European Union's Horizon 2020 and Green Deal research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 953016 (SERENDI-PV) and No 101036457 (EU-SCORES). The authors gratefully acknowledge the public financing of European Union’s Horizon 2020 and Green Deal research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 953016 (SERENDI-PV) and No 101036457 (EU-SCORES).

Keywords

100% renewable energy
Energy transition
Floating photovoltaic
Solar photovoltaics
Wave energy converter

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.1016/j.apenergy.2021.118360Licence: CC BY-NC-ND

1-s2.0-S0306261921016056-mainFinal published version, 9.05 MBLicence: CC BY-NC-ND

Cite this

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title = "Powering an island energy system by offshore floating technologies towards 100% renewables: A case for the Maldives",

abstract = "Low-lying coastal areas and archipelago countries are particularly threatened by the impacts of climate change. Concurrently, many island states still rely on extensive use of imported fossil fuels, above all diesel for electricity generation, in addition to hydrocarbon-based fuels to supply aviation and marine transportation. Land area is usually scarce and conventional renewable energy solutions cannot be deployed in a sufficient way. This research highlights the possibility of floating offshore technologies being able to fulfil the task of replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy solutions in challenging topographical areas. On the case of the Maldives, floating offshore solar photovoltaics, wave power and offshore wind are modelled on a full hourly resolution in two different scenarios to deal with the need of transportation fuels: By importing the necessary, carbon neutral synthetic e-fuels from the world market, or by setting up local production capacities for e-fuels. Presented results show that a fully renewable energy system is technically feasible in 2030 with a relative cost per final energy of 120.3 €/MWh and 132.1 €/MWh, respectively, for the two scenarios in comparison to 105.7 €/MWh of the reference scenario in 2017. By 2050, cost per final energy can be reduced to 77.6 €/MWh and 92.6 €/MWh, respectively. It is concluded that floating solar photovoltaics and wave energy converters will play an important role in defossilisation of islands and countries with restricted land area.",

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note = "Funding Information: The authors gratefully acknowledge the public financing of European Union's Horizon 2020 and Green Deal research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 953016 (SERENDI-PV) and No 101036457 (EU-SCORES). Funding Information: The authors gratefully acknowledge the public financing of European Union{\textquoteright}s Horizon 2020 and Green Deal research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 953016 (SERENDI-PV) and No 101036457 (EU-SCORES). Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2021 The Author(s)",

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AU - Keiner, Dominik

AU - Salcedo-Puerto, Orlando

AU - Immonen, Ekaterina

AU - van Sark, Wilfried G.J.H.M.

AU - Nizam, Yoosuf

AU - Shadiya, Fathmath

AU - Duval, Justine

AU - Delahaye, Timur

AU - Gulagi, Ashish

AU - Breyer, Christian

N1 - Funding Information: The authors gratefully acknowledge the public financing of European Union's Horizon 2020 and Green Deal research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 953016 (SERENDI-PV) and No 101036457 (EU-SCORES). Funding Information: The authors gratefully acknowledge the public financing of European Union’s Horizon 2020 and Green Deal research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 953016 (SERENDI-PV) and No 101036457 (EU-SCORES). Publisher Copyright: © 2021 The Author(s)

PY - 2022/2/15

Y1 - 2022/2/15

N2 - Low-lying coastal areas and archipelago countries are particularly threatened by the impacts of climate change. Concurrently, many island states still rely on extensive use of imported fossil fuels, above all diesel for electricity generation, in addition to hydrocarbon-based fuels to supply aviation and marine transportation. Land area is usually scarce and conventional renewable energy solutions cannot be deployed in a sufficient way. This research highlights the possibility of floating offshore technologies being able to fulfil the task of replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy solutions in challenging topographical areas. On the case of the Maldives, floating offshore solar photovoltaics, wave power and offshore wind are modelled on a full hourly resolution in two different scenarios to deal with the need of transportation fuels: By importing the necessary, carbon neutral synthetic e-fuels from the world market, or by setting up local production capacities for e-fuels. Presented results show that a fully renewable energy system is technically feasible in 2030 with a relative cost per final energy of 120.3 €/MWh and 132.1 €/MWh, respectively, for the two scenarios in comparison to 105.7 €/MWh of the reference scenario in 2017. By 2050, cost per final energy can be reduced to 77.6 €/MWh and 92.6 €/MWh, respectively. It is concluded that floating solar photovoltaics and wave energy converters will play an important role in defossilisation of islands and countries with restricted land area.

AB - Low-lying coastal areas and archipelago countries are particularly threatened by the impacts of climate change. Concurrently, many island states still rely on extensive use of imported fossil fuels, above all diesel for electricity generation, in addition to hydrocarbon-based fuels to supply aviation and marine transportation. Land area is usually scarce and conventional renewable energy solutions cannot be deployed in a sufficient way. This research highlights the possibility of floating offshore technologies being able to fulfil the task of replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy solutions in challenging topographical areas. On the case of the Maldives, floating offshore solar photovoltaics, wave power and offshore wind are modelled on a full hourly resolution in two different scenarios to deal with the need of transportation fuels: By importing the necessary, carbon neutral synthetic e-fuels from the world market, or by setting up local production capacities for e-fuels. Presented results show that a fully renewable energy system is technically feasible in 2030 with a relative cost per final energy of 120.3 €/MWh and 132.1 €/MWh, respectively, for the two scenarios in comparison to 105.7 €/MWh of the reference scenario in 2017. By 2050, cost per final energy can be reduced to 77.6 €/MWh and 92.6 €/MWh, respectively. It is concluded that floating solar photovoltaics and wave energy converters will play an important role in defossilisation of islands and countries with restricted land area.

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ER -

Powering an island energy system by offshore floating technologies towards 100% renewables: A case for the Maldives

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

Keywords

UN SDGs

Access to Document

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