Onshore power at Antwerp

It typically powers a docked container vessel for approximately three days within any one week, allowing its auxiliary diesel generators to be disconnected and so significantly reduce attendant noise and noxious NOx, SOx and CO2 emissions.

This means it is ahead of the EC Directive introducing a 0.1% maximum sulphur requirement for fuels used by ships berthing in EU ports from next January.

Further, the port has decided to permit the installation of photovoltaic systems within the port area, under certain conditions. Previously, the port authority (in its capacity as distribution network operator) was hampered by special circumstances on the right bank of the Scheldt.

Since the port area is relatively small, only 530 ha, the distribution network costs for users would have been disproportionately high. But the Flemish government has decided to introduce a helping hand in order to share out ‘greening’ costs more fairly, which has given the Antwerp authority the ‘green light’ for its solar power plans.