COP26 called for 6 green shipping corridors, and Dover Calais is an obvious place for this. The crossing is just 22 miles, but with over 400 ships crossing a day, it could make a big difference. Thankfully rival operators have signed up – both covering freight and passenger travel. Of course, it is a big risk to be left out as should this work any company still having to buy fuel will quickly go out of business.
Industrial sized electric charging would be required to be installed, so that while the ships unload and then reload, the batteries can be recharged. it would require a large battery, likely using several megawatt hours per trip. Of course, while this is a great deal, it is far less than the fuel that is currently used.
Interestingly, the worlds second largest shipping container line – Maersk, have announced his intention to cut emissions around the port dramatically. This would be done by installing charging buoys outside the port. This would allow the ships to emit no pollution while waiting to enter port. At the moment, each ship uses 3-5 tonnes of fuel while idling (each day) and 10 tonnes for a large ship.
Given that there are 5600 containerships currently in the world, we could be looking at milions of tonnes less emissions each year – a significant cut in emissions.
