Coupling Maritime Electrification with Renewable Power Systems: The Potential of Battery Vessels

Anthony Wiskich

CAMA Working Papers from Centre for Applied Macroeconomic Analysis, Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University

Abstract: Battery vessels (BVs) have been proposed to partially electrify long-distance shipping by connecting to ocean-going vessels at sea and recharging at port, ensuring frequent cycling of the battery. While previous work has examined their maritime economics, we quantify their system-wide effects in a detailed multi-regional capacity expansion model of the Australian east coast in 2050, under multi-year weather variability. BVs have two revenue streams of comparable value - powering ships at sea and temporal grid arbitrage - and can relocate between ports. Thus, they are deployed even at costs per MWh well above stationary batteries, lowering electricity system costs (-1.3%) and reducing renewable curtailment (-31%). As peaker gas generation and electricity-sector emissions are reduced (-12%), decarbonisation through partial ship electrification is reinforced by a cleaner electricity supply.

Keywords: maritime economics; decarbonisation; electricity model; battery vessels (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q41 Q42 Q47 Q54 R40 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 32 pages
Date: 2026-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ene, nep-env and nep-tre
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:een:camaaa:2026-17

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