Four Baltic Sea Ports Pact for Onshore Power Supply
Four Baltic Sea ports, namely Estonia’s port of Tallinn, Swedish ports of Stockholm and Finland’s ports of Helsinki and Turku, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) aiming for a common approach for a new onshore power supply for vessels.
The aim of the cooperation is to actively contribute to reducing negative effects on the environment, according to the parties.
"The passenger ferry quays in Helsinki, Stockholm, Tallinn and Turku are located close to the city centers," Ellen Kaasik, head of the Port of Tallinn's Department of Quality and Environmental Management stated in a press release.
"The combination of noise, vibration and other ship emissions (CO2, NOx, PM) can have a negative effect on existing and future living and working areas. The four ports see that one option for reducing or even eliminating all of these negative effects is to connect ferries to the on-shore electricity grid while berthed," Ellen added.
Port of Tallinn, Port of Helsinki, Ports of Stockholm and Port of Turku signed Collaboration Agreements on development, cooperation and continuation of efforts for a better environment already during previous periods 2009-2014 and one specific initiative the ports agreed to work on together was electricity connections for vessels.
"The European Union has recognised these environmental issues and has implemented the directive for alternative fuel infrastructure (DAFI, September 2015) which will make shore connections in TEN-T ports mandatory under certain circumstances by 2025 at the latest," explained Ports of Stockholm.
