shipping
Hamburg orders shore power supply for container ships
Exhaust gases from the diesel engine emerge from the chimney of a container ship in Hamburg. Photo: Markus Scholz / dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
A cruise ship has an electricity demand like that of a small town. For this purpose, the ships in the port usually run their diesel engines. That should change soon in Hamburg.
The first container ships in the Port of Hamburg are to be supplied with shore power from 2023 onwards. The shore power systems are to be built at the Tollerort and Burchardkai container terminals.
The corresponding contract was awarded to the technology group Siemens, which had already supplied the shore power system for cruise ships in Altona, which was inaugurated five years ago. The port authority of the Hanseatic city announced this on Friday. In cruise shipping, the equipping of quays with shore power systems is gradually making progress, but it is not that far in container traffic.
Shore power is, among other things, an important component on the way to climate neutrality in shipping. So far, many ocean-going ships in the port have kept their engines running in order to be supplied with electricity – with the corresponding exhaust gases and CO2 emissions. “With the expansion of the shore power supply for container shipping, we are taking an important step in the decarbonization of the port of Hamburg and are further contributing to improving the air quality in the city on a sustainable basis,” said the head of the port authority HPA, Jens Meier.
In the case of large container and cruise ships, according to the Federal Ministry of Economics, services in the order of magnitude between 4 and 16 megawatts are used, which roughly corresponds to the electricity needs of smaller cities. By 2023, the federal government had provided the federal states with EUR 176 million in financial aid for the construction of shore power systems in sea and inland ports. In addition to the corresponding systems on land, the ships must also be equipped for the use of shore power.
The most important seaports in northern Europe had agreed in early summer that they would jointly promote the supply of large container ships with shore power.