Total Cost of Ownership of Decarbonized Power and Propulsion Systems for Coastal Fishing Vessels

Decarbonization is a time-critical issue also in the maritime industry. The latest IMO regulations and emission reduction targets as well as many national and local efforts underline this. Norway has a long coastline, and small-scale fishing plays an important role in the, often, rural areas in the north of the country. Greenhouse gas emissions from the fishing sector are significant and fishing vessels should not be neglected in national emission reduction strategies. There are, however, several barriers in place preventing the decarbonization of fishing vessels, the most important of these are financial concerns, i.e., uncertainty about the development of technology and fuel prices and thus the total cost of a decarbonized fishing vessel. To provide more clarity on this topic, the calculation of the total cost of ownership (TCO) is used in this paper to represent not only the purchasing costs of a new power and propulsion system, but also all operational costs including fuel prices and carbon tax, as well as costs for maintenance and replacement of components over an estimated lifetime of 25 years. Calculations have been made for a parallel hybrid and a series hybrid system for a 10-meter gill net fishing vessel and compared to a conventional diesel system for the same vessel. The parallel hybrid system is found competitive to the conventional system. With an increase of 11 % in TCO but a carbon emission reduction of 31.6% the carbon abatement costs for this system are 131.60 €/tCO2. The most cost driving factors in the series hybrid system are the purchase costs of the hydrogen fuel cell and the hydrogen fuel prices, which are associated with uncertainties, hence contributing to the TCO ranging from a minimum 326,495.84€ to a maximum 558,076.33€.