Sweden approves funds for pilot studies of land power
The Swedish government has approved the Port of Stockholm’s request to submit a joint application, together with eight other Baltic Sea ports, for grants from the EU Connecting Europe Facility (CEF). This EU grant application, entitled ‘Baltic Ports for Climate’, was made for pilot studies to develop the shore power infrastructure at Stockholm’s ports, enabling more sustainable shipping with low air pollution emissions.
The aim is to improve the electricity supply infrastructure by expanding the shore power connections at the Ports of Stockholm to ensure the development of a more sustainable shipping with low emissions of air pollution.
“Together with other Baltic Sea ports, we want to speed up and ensure faster development of shore power connections for ships at the quay in the Baltic Sea region. This will result in a greater ability to meet our own and the EU’s environmental targets.” says Clara Lindblom, chairman of the board of Stockholm’s Hamnar.
The application is submitted together with the ports of Aarhus, Klaipeda, Ventspils, Helsinki, Riga, Tallinn, Gdynia and Hamburg. The initiative for the application has been taken by the Baltic Ports Organisation, an industry organization for ports around the Baltic Sea of which Stockholms Hamnar has been a member since the early 1990s.
It will begin with various pilot studies regarding the expansion of land current connections for cruise ships at the ports of Värtahamnen/Frihamnen and for ferry connections at the center of Stadsgården.
Ports of Stockholm will also be the project coordinator, which means having overall responsibility and communication with the EU. The important the purpose of the project is also to improve the exchange of information between ports in the Baltic Sea regarding shore connections and to share knowledge of best practices in this area.
The application will be submitted to the EU in mid-January. If everything goes as it should, the project is supposed to start in July 2023 and last until July 2025. The development of shore power connections is, among other things, one of the requirements of the EU’s climate goals and transition to a greener shipping policy known as Fit for 55.