Overview of Ports’ Sustainable & Shore Power Ambitions
Target dates for carbon neutrality and shore power projects of ports
Summary - Most ports have the ambition to become carbon neutral by 2050. This typically excludes vessel emissions and focusses on Scope 1/2 port operations only. A significant portion of ports around the world have signed shore power declarations to ‘deploy shore-side electricity by 2028 where possible’, including all large North Sea ports, Los Angeles, Montreal and all large Japanese ports. Cruise and container vessels are the primary target for most ports’ regulations and EU will start taxing vessels via EU ETS from next year onwards.
While moored, 100 [kW] of auxiliary power will cost approx. €150 per day in EU ETS (price of €100 / mT CO2), or €50.000+ per year. Calculate your EU ETS costs here.
Not all ports are available. Works better on computer, not phone. This blog uses publicly available information updated until late 2022.
The maritime energy transition linchpin —> Ports
At some point, every ship needs to come home. Ports are the homes for all ships. And at some point, ports will need to become carbon neutral as well. Luckily, as can be seen from the below table, 9 out of 12 ports have indicated the ambition to become carbon neutral. Although this table is far from complete, it does highlight the inevitability of carbon neutrality of ports from around the world - and thus the ships coming home to them.
By far the most important aspect for ports to become carbon neutral - when focussing on ship or ‘floating’ emissions - is shore power. It is a key element in the fight for carbon neutrality. Cost-effective roll-out of shore power is thus top of mind for port policy makers. This can be very tricky though.
That is because ports might be the linchpin for implementing shore power, port authorities themselves can have have limited ‘power’ when it comes to port infrastructure. This is due to the fact that they are neither the consumer, nor the provider of shore power energy or technology. Port authorities act as the facilitator, or as investor in a limited amount of cases. Their ‘blessing’ is crucial to the development of shore power projects, but they need shipowners and shore power technology suppliers to build the infrastructure.
This understanding is highlighted in the signing of a ‘shore power declaration’ of a significant amount of major ports around the world, highlighted in the subsequent section.
One Ocean Summit 2022
Government ministers and port authorities from around the world signed a shore power declaration at the One Ocean Summit on February 10th, 2022. Joined by the European Investment Bank, the stakeholders agreed to make best efforts to deploy shore-side electricity supply by 2028, in particular for cruise and container vessels. Port signatories of the shore power declaration are stated below.
● Le Havre, Rouen, Paris (HAROPA) (France)
● Marseille (France)
● Dunkerque (France)
● Port of Breme (Germany)
● Port of Hamburg (Germany)
● Port of Antwerp-Bruges (Belgium)
● Port of Ostende (Belgium)
● North Sea Ports (Belgium Netherlands)
● Port of Amsterdam (Netherlands)
● Port of Rotterdam (Netherlands)
● Port of Copenhagen (Denmark)
● Port of Göteborg/Gothenburg (Sweden)
● Port of Malmö (Sweden)
● Port of Montreal (Canada)
● Port of Los Angeles (United States of America)
● Port of Busan (South Korea)
● Port of Osaka (Japan)
● Port of Kobe (Japan)
● Port of Yokohama (Japan)
● Port of Tokyo (Japan)
● Port of Tanger (Morocco)
The exact meaning of ‘best efforts’ remains to be seen, and for some ports it is a mere gesture. Port of Los Angeles for example already has to comply with near complete roll-out of shore power due to the Ocean Going Vessels at Berth regulation. Nevertheless the shear amount of signatories is a positive and welcoming sign to the maritime industry.
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