Just four of Europe’s thirty biggest ports have invested in at least half of shoreside electric infrastructure required by 2030, finds a new study carried out by DNV, on behalf of T&E. The Port of Antwerp is yet to invest in shore power and the Port of Rotterdam also falls short of the targets set.
Europe’s ports are not doing enough to tackle toxic air pollution, states Transport & Environment (T&E) after looking at the results of the study. It shows that to date, just twenty per cent of the EU’s required electric shore power infrastructure has been installed or commissioned in major ports, meaning most container ships, cruise ships and ferries continue to run on fossil fuels while docked. T&E calls for more ambitious port-side measures to drastically cut air pollution and unnecessary emissions from moored ships.
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Shore power by 2030
Over six per cent of the EU maritime CO2 emissions come from ships running on fossil fuels at ports. Alongside CO2, ships also emit high amounts of sulphur oxides (SOx), nitrogen oxides (NOx) and particulate matter (PM), which have significant effects on human health.
As part of the EU Green Deal, EU ports are required to provide shore-side electricity to ships by 2030. But installing shore-side plug in connections today would already improve air pollution in port cities. Of the 31 ports studied, only four have installed or contracted more than half of the required connections.
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No shore power in Antwerp, Rotterdam performs poorly
The ports of Antwerp, Dublin, Gdansk and Lisbon are among those that are yet to invest in any electric plug-in infrastructure, according to the commissioned study. The ports of Rotterdam, Barcelona, Valencia, Bremerhaven and Le Havre also perform poorly in terms of their efforts to meet the EU mandate. This despite the fact that Rotterdam did open a shore power facility for cruise ships this year.
The ports of Algeciras and Hamburg account for a large share of the installed onshore power supply (OPS) connections in Europe. The ports of Algeciras, Livorno, Świnoujście and Valletta are the only ones that have installed or contracted more than half of the required OPS installations.
The report looks at Europe’s biggest ports. The following ports did not respond to the researchers within the survey response deadline: Marseille, Dunkerque, Tallinn, Copenhagen/Malmö, Oporto-Leixoes, Gdynia, Helsinki, Varna, Piraeus, Helsingborg, Ploce, Limassol, Marsaxlokk.
Also read: Cruise ships in Rotterdam can now plug into shore power
Tackling pollution overnight
Inesa Ulichina, shipping policy officer at T&E: ‘Electric plug-in technology is available and would reduce shipping’s impact on local air pollution and the climate overnight. For shipping segments that spend a lot of time at ports like cruise ships, plugging in would be a gamechanger.’
Because they spend significantly more time at berth, cruise ships produce more than six times more port-side emissions than container ships. In 2023, Carnival’s 3500-passenger cruise ship, the Azura, emitted a whopping 22,800 tonnes of CO2 in European ports. Plugging in at port would eliminate almost all of it and cut the ship’s total yearly emissions by a fifth.
T&E calls on the EU to bring forward shore power requirements for cruise ships to 2028, ensure ports can earn clean energy credits when ships plug in, dedicate more EU funding for port electrification, and expand the rules to cover all polluting ships, not just the largest passenger and container ships.
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