Port Metro Vancouver has announced an extension of it shore power to container terminals to reduce emissions and noise.
At a ceremony yesterday, Kerry-Lynne D. Findlay, minister of national revenue and member of parliament for Delta-Richmond East, on behalf of Lisa Raitt, minister of transport, and Port Metro Vancouver President and CEO Robin Silvester announced funding for the installation of shore power facilities for container vessels at the port’s container terminals.
Port Metro Vancouver said in a prepared statement that it was the first port in Canada to implement shore power for cruise ships, and since 2009, over 11,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions have been avoided.
The use of shore power at the container terminals will further reduce greenhouse gas emissions, contribute to Canada’s emissions reduction targets, and assist the port in reaching targets under the Northwest Ports Clean Air Strategy, a collaboration between Port Metro Vancouver and the ports of Tacoma and Seattle, to reduce emissions in the shared Puget Sound – Georgia Basin airshed.
Shore power will also ease the impacts of growing Canadian trade on communities by reducing generator noise associated with the auxiliary engines of container vessels while in port.
The total project funding is $12 million: $6 million from Transport Canada’s Shore Power Technology for Ports Program and $6 million from Port Metro Vancouver. Each ship connection to shore power is estimated to avoid greenhouse gas emissions of 75 tons.
Both shore power operations are expected to be operational by March 31, 2017.
Commented port president and CEO Silvester: “Port Metro Vancouver is mandated to facilitate Canada’s trade while protecting the environment and supporting communities. The installation of shore power at container terminals in Vancouver and Delta represents another positive step in ongoing work to reduce marine shipping emissions, work that has resulted in significant improvements in Metro Vancouver air quality. We are very proud of the collaboration between the Government of Canada, Port Metro Vancouver, BC Hydro, DP World and Global Container Terminals to bring shore power facilities for container ships to our port.”
