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Since the International Maritime Organization has paved the way towards zero emissions, more frequent applications of transition fuels in newly constructed ships have been observed. Fuels such as LNG or methanol are characterised by lower emissions when burned in engines. In order to diminish fuel consumption, and hence the rate of emission, support for the performance of a ship's engines with energy from renewable sources such as photovoltaic (PV) installations is increasingly common. The efficiency of PV panels decreases with an increase in temperature, and it is therefore important to cool them. However, the cooling systems for PV panels impose additional financial outlays as well as a higher demand for electric power, which is needed to run the circulating pumps. A natural cooling process can occur in some vessels via high sea waves, when the ship's decks are flooded by outboard water, although such cooling has an accidental and periodic character, as it results from weather conditions. Despite this, its potential demands a closer examination. This paper presents experimental research carried out with an experimental setup that allowed us to simulate the process of flooding of a PV panel with water waves of various frequencies, resulting from choppy periods at sea. Depending on the weather conditions and the character of flooding, our results indicate that an increase in the power of the PV module of about 18% is obtainable. Our research shows that when the intervals between flooding are longer, the periodic character of the temperature changes obtained by flooding the front surface of a PV panel with water is more distinctive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sea environment protection requirements getting stricter with time have caused nowadays growing interest in the application of the renewable energy sources in the marine power systems. This allows to reduce the CO 2 emission and therefore to achieve more advantageous value of ship's energy efficiency index. One of the more preferably applied arrangements, regardless of the ship's size, are the photovoltaic systems (PV systems). Their contribution to the electricity production on ships can be increased through the application of PV panels water cooling which results in the increase of their efficiency. This article presents the calculation methods allowing to determine the energy profits obtainable owing to the application of the PV modules cooling system using the water taken from the ship's power plant cooling system. The results of calculations for PV installation of a selected ro-pax vessel planned for the operation on the Świnoujście –Ystad line have been used and presented in this article. • Application of PV systems with cooling modules on ships. • Cooling of PV modules by means of overboard water. • Improving the efficiency of ship's power system using PV systems. • The calculation method to determine the energy profits of the PV modules with water sea cooling system is elaborated. • The case study is the newbuilding designed for the Świnoujście –Ystad line, passenger – car ferry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]