Commissioned by NOW, a study called: ‘Mobile shore power – technological possibilities and prerequisites‘ (Mobile Landstromversorgung – Technologische Möglichkeiten und Voraussetzungen (MoLa)), conducted by consultancies Hanseatic Transport Consultancy and MKO Marine Consulting, evaluates technological possibilities as well as what is needed for the use of mobile shore power solutions in German ports.
According to the study, because of its greater flexibility, mobile shore power solutions are often a good alternative to stationary systems. However there is a lack of experience, as many mobile solutions are still in the development or testing phase.
In fact, test deployments have revealed various challenges, including licensing issues or acceptance problems. Mobile shore power solutions have therefore hardly been used in German seaports. The MoLa study aims to support port operation and management companies evaluate shore power solutions in terms of their suitability for their location.
Overall, the study comes to the conclusion that mobile solutions are particularly suitable for smaller ports or in port sections that are less utilized, while the most important factor is the greatest possible capacity utilization of the systems for optimal economic use.
Mobile systems can help this issue because of their flexibility. Smaller ships with energy requirements of under 1.5 MW can be well supplied with mobile shore power units.
Ports and terminal facilities that regularly receive larger types of ship generally have more advantages by using stationary shore power solutions.
The MoLa study further considered both mobile shore solutions without their own energy generation (direct electricity or battery) as well as those with their own energy generation on location, by means of hydrogen or climate-neutral fuels.
In evaluating the potential, prognoses were used about the further development of costs and availability of the individual energy sources.
