Abstract
The technology of cold ironing (or shore-to-ship power) can meaningfully reduce greenhouse gases and air pollutant emissions from ships at the berth by powering the vessels from the electrical shore grid. While cold ironing constitutes an effective and affordable solution in northern Europe and America, economic, legal, and environmental factors still render this technology less attractive in southern Europe. This paper aims to unpack and analyze the economic, regulatory, and environmental factors that can foster cold ironing as a standard installation in the Mediterranean Sea. Based on a model design for the port of Trieste (Italy) as applied to a cluster of target ports in the Adriatic Sea (in Italy, Croatia, and Greece), this article evaluates the cold ironing payback period by comparing costs of shore side-plants with environmental externalities and O&M costs. Moreover, the paper addresses key regulatory bottlenecks arising in different European jurisdictions with regard to the setting-up and development of cold ironing, while appraising the legal and economic consequences of deploying cold ironing in light of the future inclusion of the maritime sector in the EU Emission Trading System.
Highlights
Air pollution and climate change pose serious risks to public health [1,2,3,4]
The present paper has proposed a technical, environmental, and regulatory analysis to show the feasibility of cold ironing in a particular Adriatic route crossing the coastlines of Italy, Croatia, and Greece
The high cost of energy from land in the Adriatic Sea penalizes the high-voltage shore connection technology, despite the many cruise liners to be fed during the periodical mooring
Summary
Air pollution and climate change pose serious risks to public health [1,2,3,4]. It is necessary to activate integrated policies aimed at combating air pollution and mitigating climate change by encouraging forms of clean-sustainable energy production [5,6]. The present paper wants to explore this trend towards energy transition in the context of large ship-powering. This work focuses on a possible intervention to reduce air pollution and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions concerning maritime transportation [7,8,9]. The cold ironing ( known as shore connection) is a port-based emission-reduction technology that reduces emissions generated from the auxiliary engines of a ship using shore-based electric power. While the shipping sector plays an essential role in the EU economy and still represents one of the most energy-efficient modes of transportation, it accounts for 3–4%
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