Only 3% of Global Ports Equipped for Shore Power

Shore Power. File Image. Image Credit: Ship & Bunker

The International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) this week reported that just 3% of global ports currently offer shore power facilities for ships.

The news comes at a time when many ports are looking to reduce emissions as part of wider efforts to decarbonize the maritime industry as a whole, so the low uptake of the technology may be surprising to some.

This is also despite there being calls for over a decade for wider uptake of the technology.

Commenting in its latest Leadership Insights Newsletter, ICS notes the tide may finally be turning for shore power - also known as onshore power supply (OPS) systems, or cold ironing - thanks to a number of regularity changesin regions across the world.

The recent completion of shore power at The Port of Seattle is a case in point.

As Ship & Bunker reported earlier this week, completion of shore power facilities at Pier 66 came ahead of new regulations that from 2027 will require all cruise vessels homeported in Seattle be shore power capable and utilize shore power.

Indeed, with cruise terminals often in highly publicly visible areas such as near a city's downtown core, the cruise sector has often been at the forefront of shore power projects.

Donnie Brown, Senior VP of Global Maritime Policy at the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), told ICS Leadership Insights that the sector has invested millions of dollars in onboard shore power capabilities, and that 120 ships, 46% of the CLIA fleet, are equipped to connect to shoreside electricity.

"By 2028, more than 210 ships will be sailing with the ability to plug in at port—representing 72% of all CLIA cruise line member ships," Brown added.

Shore power systems allow vessels to 'plug in' to the local electric grid while at berth, enabling them to turn off engines that would otherwise be needed to generate power for the vessel.

At-berth emissions attributable the ship are then ostensibly zero, with total emissions being a function of how the local electricity used was generated.

In the absence of a mandated requirement to use shore power systems, perhaps the biggest reason vessels do not typically opt to 'plug in' voluntarily is the cost.

"Fuel oil is cheap and untaxed, whereas electricity is very highly taxed," Dr. Simon Bullock of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, told ICS Insights.