Decarbonisation of seaports: A review and directions for future research

Marine activities in seaports account for circa 3% of total carbon emissions worldwide, prompting several initiatives to decarbonise their energy systems and make seaports smarter and greener. This paper provides a thorough and authoritative review of the vast array of research in this field, including past and ongoing initiatives. The study reveals that existing research leverages recent ad-vances in digital technologies while focusing on one or several of the following themes: carbon reduction, use of renewable energy resources, costperformance optimisation, deployment of smart control technologies, the regulatory land-scape for greening seaports, and implementing green port practices guidelines. As such, the paper provides a critical review of existing technologies and con-cepts that promote and contribute to the decarbonisation of seaports, including Smart Grids and Virtual Power Plants. Several avenues for future research are then discussed, including (a) total life cycle approach to seaport energy manage-ment, (b) Semantic-based modelling, forecasting and optimisation of seaports energy systems, (c) Secure and reliable seaports energy services, and (d) Transi-tion towards prosumer-driven seaport energy communities. The paper concludes by emphasising the importance of an adapted energy regulatory landscape at a national and EU-wide level to meet EU phased energy reduction targets.

Automated summary

Marine activities in seaports contribute to about 3% of global carbon emissions, prompting the need for decarbonization and smarter, greener energy systems. This paper reviews existing research and discusses future research directions for the energy management of seaports, emphasizing the importance of adapting energy regulatory landscape to meet EU phased energy reduction targets.