February 3, 2010 – Italian port authorities and electric utilities in major coastal cities have announced plans to provide docked cruise ships with access to on-shore electricity while they are docked. The move is expected to reduce carbon emissions in the ports by 30% and nitrogen oxide particulates by 95%.
Enel, a large Italian electric utility, said yesterday that in addition to the particulate and carbon reductions, they predict the move will also eliminate noise pollution from the ships entirely. Green, Inc. reports that the first participant will be Venice, with the ports of Paolo Costa, La Spezia and Lorenzo Forcieri to follow. Until recently, the majority of cruise liners were not compatible with on-shore electricity, forcing the ships to run their on-board generators the entire time they were docked.
There are a limited number of ports around the world which allow these giant ships to turn their motors off and receive on-shore electricity, a process known as cold ironing. Los Angeles in the U.S. and Gotenberg in Sweden are the most notable, and the process is being studied by many shipping companies as a way to reduce their environmental footprints.
