Targeting incentives to adopt wind-assisted technologies in shipping by agent-based simulations

Although the maritime industry has introduced technological improvements, shipping activity is still a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. Using more intelligent incentive policies, such as subsidies, seems a way to increase green technology adoption. Our proposal is to engineer micro-level incentives to target a reduced set of adopters to optimize subsidies while encouraging adoption by shipowners. We focus on wind-assisted propulsion technology in shipping and test the effectiveness of targeting using agent-based simulations. The agent-based model employs a three-phase process, influenced by awareness of technology, economic factors, and networking. Experiments under different scenarios robustly analyze targeting policies and their impact on adoption rates. Our findings reveal that targeted incentives significantly improve adoption compared to a uniform distribution. The most effective targeting policies are those that select receptors based on their social activity and energy consumption, although the available budget affects the selection of criteria.