An environmental and techno-economic analysis of shore side electricity

Abstract The global shipping industry contributes a significant part of global greenhouse gas (GHG) and atmospheric pollutant emissions, which would cause serious problems to environment and residents’ health in coastal areas. Shore Side Electricity (SSE) is an efficient energy means for CO2 emission reduction worldwide. However, enormous initial investment, high electricity sale price and charging caused delays set the barriers for the implementation of SSE. This paper proposes a framework for assessing the economic feasibility of SSE investment considering environmental and techno-economic factors. Besides, carbon trading is also integrated in this framework to improve the profitability of SSE investment. Finally, the Port of Shanghai is selected for case study, and 3 scenarios are designed to investigate the economic viability. Results indicate that the income of reduced CO2 emission trading only contributes a little to the overall income, and the port needs to make profits through electricity sale in order to avoid great financial losses. Besides, a more radical investment plan could have better financial performance and more CO2 emission reduction for the port. The conclusions can facilitate policy makers to make SSE promotion policies, that providing subsidies on electricity price may be more useful than just financing the facilities’ implementation.