Optimal Sizing of a Hybrid Power System for Driving a Passenger Boat in Bangladesh

Bangladesh is a land of rivers, canals, and lakes where water transportation is an essential means of transport. The country use boats as one of the leading resources of transportation in its widespread inland waterways. Most of the currently used boats use only diesel for fuel. Appropriate use of renewable energy sources, particularly solar energy with diesel generators, could reduce diesel consumption. In this paper, a typical boat energy requirement was calculated to be 42. 10kWh/day. A boat could be driven by a DC motor using electrical power generated using an onboard PV system, battery, and small-sized generator. The size of the vessel is length 12m, width 4. 8m, depth 0. 5m, and draft height 0. 04m with a carrying capacity of 20passenger for 8hours a day. The designed system consists of a 10.6 kWPV, 1.6kW rated small generator, onboard battery storage consists of 16 batteries, each rated 6V, 240Ah, and a 4SV DC motor rated 5kW300rpm with a speed controller. The paper includes system design details and sizing using HOMER Pro.