The money would fund pilot studies to develop infrastructure for passenger ships and other vessels
By
Amber Hickman |
Ports of Stockholm in Sweden has joined forces with eight other Baltic Sea ports to apply for a European Union (EU) grant to develop shore power infrastructure that can be used by visiting cruise ships, ferries and other vessels.
The Baltic Ports for Climate grant from the EU Connecting Europe Facility will provide funding for pilot studies to determine how best to develop shore power infrastructure at ports in Aarhus, Denmark; Klaipeda, Lithuania; Helsinki, Finland; Tallinn, Estonia; Gdynia, Poland; Hamburg, Germany; and Ventspils and Riga in Latvia.
If approved for the grant, the Ports of Stockholm will take the role of project coordinator and will manage communication between the ports and the EU. It will also conduct different pilot studies concerning the expansion of onshore power connections for cruise ships at the Värtahamnen and Frihamnen ports and for ferries at the Stadsgården quays.
“Together with the other Baltic Sea ports, we want to speed up and assure a more rapid development of onshore power connections for vessels at the quayside in the Baltic Sea region,” said Clara Lindblom, chair of the board of Ports of Stockholm. “This will result in greater ability to meet our own and EU environmental goals.”
The application to the EU will be submitted in mid-January with plans to start the project in July 2023.