Swedish gov’t OKs Ports of Stockholm’s EU grant application for onshore power project

The Swedish government has given the go-ahead for Ports of Stockholm’s EU grant funding application for onshore power pilot studies.

In the first week of January the positive decision was taken by the Swedish government to approve Ports of Stockholm’s request to submit a joint application, together with eight other Baltic Sea ports, for a grant from the EU Connecting Europe Facility (CEF).

The aim is to improve the electrical supply infrastructure by expanding the onshore power connections at Ports of Stockholm to ensure the development of more sustainable shipping with low emissions of air pollutants.

The joint EU grant application has the title Baltic Ports for Climate and is being submitted together with the ports in Aarhus, Klaipeda, Ventspils, Helsinki, Riga, Tallinn, Gdynia and Hamburg.

The initiative for the application was taken by the Baltic Ports Organisation, an industry sector organisation for ports around the Baltic Sea that Ports of Stockholm has been a member of since the beginning of the 1990s.

“Together with the other Baltic Sea ports, we want to speed up and assure a more rapid development of onshore power connections for vessels at the quayside in the Baltic Sea region. This will result in greater ability to meet our own and EU environmental goals,” said Clara Lindblom, Chair of the Board of Ports of Stockholm.

The role of Ports of Stockholm in the project will involve different pilot studies concerning the expansion of onshore power connections for cruise ships at the Värtahamnen/Frihamnen ports and for ferry connections at the city center Stadsgården quays.

Ports of Stockholm will also be the project coordinator, which means overall responsibility and communication with the EU. One of the most important goals of the project is also to improve the exchange of information between Baltic Sea ports in terms of onshore power connections and to share knowledge of best practices in this area.

The application will be submitted to the EU in the middle of January. If everything goes smoothly it is intended that the project will start in July 2023 and run until July 2025, according to the officials.

The development of onshore power connections is among other things one of the demands of the EU climate goals and conversion to greener shipping policy known as Fit for 55.

The ‘Fit for 55’ package is aimed at enabling the European Union to reduce its net greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030 compared to 1990 levels and to achieve climate neutrality in 2050.