Energy: We must do more with less

Forty years ago this month the raw power that hurled Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and the oft-unremembered Michael Collins into space aboard Apollo 11 on their way to the moon had nothing whatsoever to do with energy conservation.

Nor were Armstrong’s words intended to have, as he left the lunar module’s ladder and stepped onto the unknown – but what he said is as valuable today in that context as it was back then when he boldly went where no man had gone before.

Today, applied to energy conservation, Armstrong’s famous ‘one small step for man’ can be a ‘giant leap for mankind’ in correctly husbanding our finite energy resources and seeking effective alternatives.

And people within the port industry have a major role to play, either strategically, as decision makers opting for more efficient alternative technologies, or an employees, encouraged to turn off lights and computer terminals when they’re not being used.

Ports are pivotal to world trade in the 21^st century; after all, the world’s 4,500 container ships and all those bulk carriers are central to the concept of globalisation; the way the world has traded for decades.

Long may it continue, not only since cargo ships can’t operate without ports, but also that it’s cheaper and more energy efficient than making consumer goods on the consumer’s doorstep, according to James Cannon, President of Energy Futures Inc.

In a paper looking at energy use in ports and shipping earlier this year, he said: “With cheap labor and transportation, it is now less expensive to bring a pair of shoes manufactured in Asia thousands of miles across several oceans to a customer in the US than it is to manufacture the same shoes ten miles from the consumer’s home.

“Surprisingly, it is also more energy efficient, resulting in lower emissions of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. In fact, transporting one pair of tennis shoes from a factory in Asia to western markets emits only one-tenth the carbon dioxide released by a car driven 10 miles from home to the shoe store to buy it.”

That’s not to say that it isn’t getting more expensive to move goods at sea and on land, because fuel prices show no sign of a downturn. Bunkers are the subject of new international laws with the potential to restrict its use. Diesel, burned by shoreside cranes and trucks, is also getting more expensive. Nor is either getting any more environmentally-friendly.

Driving more slowly is a start to using less fuel, as Maersk has been doing since last year, and the Port of Los Angeles has been encouraging shipping lines to do since 2005. Last year, Los Angeles recognised 19 shipping lines for reducing their speed from 22 knots to just 12 once they were within 20 miles of the port entrance. And the results have been so positive that port officials are thinking of extending the speed limit to 40 miles out. They measure success in terms of reduced emissions; and that’s 917 fewer tonnes of NOx emissions, by 622 tonnes fewer of SOx, and 67 tonnes fewer of diesel particulates.

Also working with other companies, but this time shoreside, the Port of Charleston is working with the lorry drivers who connect the port to its hinterland.

Here, operators are being encouraged to retrofit auxiliary power units or smaller generators to reduce the need for idling engines, and are being paid rebates for a proportion of the cost. They’re also being encouraged to step away from the dual wheels much favoured by US truckers proud of their 18-wheelers, in favour of a single-wide tyre arrangement said to save 4% on fuel costs, and aerodynamic kits offering 5%.

Applications are already in, and approved projects must be completed by November this year.

John F Hassell III, interim president and chief executive of the South Carolina State Ports Authority, says: “Through this collaborative grant program, it’s much more affordable and accessible for truckers to upgrade their equipment. These technologies not only improve fuel use and cut costs of running the trucks, but they also reduce air emissions, providing a broader environmental benefit to the entire community. What’s good for business can also be good for the environment.”

And Stan Nutt, president of the Charleston Motor Carriers Association, adds: “The project’s success shows that the trucking industry is very interested in solutions that have both environmental and financial benefits.”

At the other side of the world in Hong Kong, a range of relatively small measures is making a measurable difference to energy usage. Among them is reducing engine idling speed on 40 rubber-tyred gantry cranes from 1,800 rpm to 1,500 rpm, yielding a 15% saving on fuel, and delivering payback in less than four months. The introduction of electrical power alongside diesel engines is being considered.

Non-essential floodlights on quay crane booms are automatically turned off when the boom is raised; introduction of a series of energy-saving measures on lighting indoors has reduced demand by 750,000kWh; solar water heating has been introduced where possible.

Cerebral gymnastics of the highest order put Armstrong and Aldrin on to the moon and brought them home again; conquering the demands of the future on the space in which we live on this planet, and how we manage the energy we use in doing so, is going to require another giant leap from mankind. But we’ve already taken the first small step.