Cruise ships in Stockholm will soon connect to onshore power

STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN—Ports of Stockholm has been awarded funding from the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency and the European Union for investing in onshore power supply for cruise ships. 

Ports of Stockholm, together with the Baltic Sea ports of Copenhagen/Malmö, Aarhus and Helsinki, will invest in providing onshore power to cruise ships. The joint initiative is an effort to reduce emissions of shipping air pollutants within port areas. The environmental investment in providing onshore power according to a common international standard at these ports will also enable cruise ships and shipping companies to invest in and connect to onshore power according to the same standard.

“We are taking the next step in being an international-quality sustainable cruise destination,” Mayor of Stockholm Anna König Jerlmyr said in a released statement.

For Ports of Stockholm the investment means equipping two central quays in Stockholm with high voltage onshore power connections that will allow cruise ships to shut down their engines and use power supplied from the local electricity grid. The project will start in December 2020 and is funded partly by the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency local investments Climate Leap Program and also by EU grant funding.

The work to equip the two central quays with onshore power connections will be completed, respectively, in 2023 and 2024.