APL cold-irons ships in Oakland, plugging into shore power

APL says it has flipped the switch on a clean-air effort by shutting down, or cold-ironing a vessel's engines, to reduce exhaust emissions at the Port of Oakland opposite San Francisco.


"We have brought cold-ironing to the port," said APL Americas president Gene Seroka. "When others do as well, we can further reduce vessel emissions and re-enforce that global trade growth is sustainable."


The 900-foot APL Singapore switched off its auxiliary diesel engines after berthing at APL's global gateway central terminal. The carrier said in a statement that it marked the official launch of its programme to cold-iron five vessels this year that are deployed on the transpacific trade between Asia and the US.


The company said it expects cold-ironing to eradicate 50,000 pounds of nitrogen oxides emissions from its ships annually in Oakland. Emissions of particulate matter are expected to drop by 1,500 pounds a year.


It noted that the state of California has mandated cold-ironing for container ships by 2014. At that time, half of a carrier's fleet must rely on shore power when berthed in California ports.


The Singaporean ocean liner said it has spent US$11 million to retrofit the five container vessels and re-wire its terminal for cold-ironing. It was awarded US$4.8 million in California Air Resources Board grants by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District to complete the project.


"We commend APL's efforts to move early to upgrade their berths and their ships in order to plug them into the grid when they're berthed at their port of Oakland terminal," said Air Resources Board chairman Mary Nichols. "Working with the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, APL leveraged ARB's incentive funding to make this project a reality so the residents of port communities will breathe cleaner air."
(Source:http://www.schednet.com)