The Feasibility of Using Zero-Emission Electric Boats to Enhance the Techno-Economic Performance of an Ocean-Energy-Supported Coastal Hotel Building

The topics of zero-emission/energy buildings and electric mobility are increasingly being discussed as solutions to alleviate the environmental burden caused by energy consumption and CO2 emissions in both sectors. This study investigates a zero-energy hotel building supported by a hybrid ocean renewable energy system, which interacts with several zero-emission electric boats. Nine different combinations of floating photovoltaics (FPV) and wave energy converters (WEC) are investigated to compensate for their different fluctuations and the stochasticity of energy generation. Using TRNSYS 18 to perform modeling and simulation, a comprehensive techno-economic-environmental analysis of the hybrid system was conducted. The results indicate that when the total annual generation ratios of WEC and FPV are 76% and 24%, respectively, this combination can achieve the best energy weighted matching index (WMI). The WMI reached its maximum (0.703) when 16 boats were sailing at 15 km/h for a distance of 7.5 km. However, increasing the number of boats to 16 does not help improve economic returns or reduce the annual operational equivalent CO2 emission factor of the hybrid system. Depending on the maximum number of electric boats designed for this study, the non-dominated WMI would be limited to 0.654.

Blue Economy and Blue Activities: Opportunities, Challenges, and Recommendations for The Bahamas

Following the global shutdown of tourism at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, small island developing states such as The Bahamas had their economies immobilized due to their heavy dependence on the industry. Beyond economic recovery in a post COVID-19 paradigm, the blue economy, blue growth, and associated activities offer pathways for a more resilient economy and is well-suited for The Bahamas. This paper suggests conduits for economic development using a traditional strength, coastal and marine tourism, in conjunction with the emerging fields of ocean renewable energy, offshore aquaculture, marine biotechnology, and bioprospecting. The interlinkages between each activity are discussed. Knowledge gaps in offshore aquaculture, ocean renewable energy, marine biotechnology, and marine environment monitoring are identified. In each sector case, strategic and tactical decision-making can be achieved through the exploitation of ocean numerical modeling and observations, and consequently should be invested in and developed alongside the requisite computational resources. Blue growth is encouraged, but instances of blue injustice are also highlighted. Crucially, pursuing blue economy activities should be given top national priority for economic recovery and prosperity.

Developing marine and coastal resources in Nigeria: Prospects and challenges

Nigeria, with a coastline of about 853 km bordering the Atlantic Ocean in the area of the Gulf of Guinea, has a maritime area of about 46,000 km2, with significant and diverse natural marine resources. The country has numerous economic activities, in which the highest percentage depends on or is derived from the ocean resources, but it is explicitly clear that her blue economy potentials are far from being fully harnessed. The Nigerian maritime domain is rich with a variety of resources that support livelihoods and economic development. These include established activities like fisheries, shipping, offshore oil and gas, maritime and coastal tourism, marine manufacturing and construction, dredging, etc., and emerging activities such as marine aquaculture, deep and ultra-deepwater oil and gas, offshore wind energy, ocean renewable energy, marine and seabed mining, etc. The main purpose of this paper was to qualitatively investigate the prospects and challenges in developing marine resources in Nigeria and to suggest necessary recommendations. Existing literatures and documents from secondary sources were reviewed. The paper revealed that the challenges in harnessing marine resources in Nigeria are an inadequate scientific data bank, inconsistent government policy, climate change, and inadequate manpower. This paper recommends that the government need to enhance targeted capacity building, particularly at the policy, institutional, legal, and technical levels, for developing coastal states. This may result in effective exploration and mining, which may lead to sustainable marine resources.

Sustainability Awareness through STEAM+

Innovative technology enterprises have been working closely with OECD countries to address issues related to sustainability. There are many acronyms associated with STEM, e.g. STEM+, incorporating the humanities, community needs, and global concerns indicated by the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) of the UN. UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) supports capacity-building for the SDGs and their related thematic issues, including water, energy, climate, oceans, urbanization, transport, science and technology. We prefer to use STEAM+ based on our earlier work, indicating the inclusion of Arts in the curricula to attract female students and interdisciplinarity. Following Briggs’ constructive alignment paradigm with focus on learning objectives, activities, and assessments (LO-A-A) in a STEAM+ curricula, sustainability can be included with critical reflective thinking addressing air pollution, microplastics in the ocean, renewable energy, food wastage, circular economy, poverty etc. The paradigm “Student in Centre and Front (CSF)” discussed in our earlier study promotes the idea of the student as a responsible member in the society giving due attention to pressing socioeconomic issues such as the SDGs. In this paper, means of extending the responsibility of the students in developing awareness of issues related to SDGs through curricula and projects are presented. The focus of this paper is on addressing STEAM+ tuned for awakening interest in SDGs, with some examples from courses held in our universities. Examples are taken from learning activities involving group of students as part of selected courses and projects/problem-based learning (PPBL) with reflective practice.