By
Alex Smith |
The Port of Boulogne Calais has signed a €6.7 million contract with French electricity provider Réseau de Transport d'Électricité (RTE) to connect the port of Calais to the high voltage network.
The contract will make the port the first to provide a 100-megawatt connection. This will allow up to three ships to recharge their batteries simultaneously, with 20 to 35 megawatts of power provided per ship in 45 minutes.
"Securing the very high voltage energy resource with RTE is a founding act towards the decarbonisation of the Calais-Dover link,” said Benoit Rochet, managing director of Port Boulogne Calais. “The next few years will be devoted to the design of the infrastructure that will transform and distribute energy and to connect and recharge ships. there is currently no equivalent connection system in service in the maritime world capable of delivering the power in such a short period of time.”
The port is aiming to allow maritime operators to sail their ships using entirely electric power by 2035.
“The Port of Calais will invent an ultra-efficient solution that does not exist anywhere else in the world to date,” said François Lavallee, chairman of the board of directors of Port Boulogne Calais.
The signing of the agreement was also attended by Laurent Cantat-Lampin, regional delegate for Hauts-de-France at RTE; Christophe Coulon, vice president of Région Hauts-de-France; Franck Dhersin, senator for the North; Natacha Bouchart, mayor of Calais and president of Grand Calais Terres & Mers; Gauvain Haulot, route manager for DFDS; and Laurent Schricke, director of Calais for P&O Ferries.