Swedish government has approved Ports of Stockholm request to apply for a EU grant to expand its onshore power connections. Following the approval, Ports of Stockholm can jointly apply, together with eight other Baltic Sea ports, for EU grant funding for pilot studies to develop the onshore power infrastructure, enabling more sustainable shipping with low air pollutant emissions. 

“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,” says Clara Lindblom, Chair of the Board of Ports of Stockholm.

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.

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 centre 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.

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. Today many of the regular schedule ferry services already connect to onshore power in Stockholm and new onshore power facilities are being built at the quays at both Port of Kapellskär and at the city centre Stadsgården quays.