
Pioneering a clean ship future
Source: Port of Long Beach PORT TAKES AGGRESSIVE, INNOVATIVE APPROACHES ON COURSE TO ZERO-EMISSIONS OPERATIONS When “K” Line’s Long Beach Bridge arrived at the Port of Long Beach in 2008, it was more than just another ship call. Outwardly, the operations involved in berthing the container ship would have seemed routine: a pilot boarded outside of the breakwater to guide the vessel to the International Transportation Service terminal at Pier G. Mooring operations secured the behemoth vessel to land, allowing ship-to-shore cranes to begin plucking containers. A weather eye might have noticed dockworkers dragging a long cable to the Long Beach Bridge, connecting it into a container-like box on the ship’s side. Soon after, the ship switched off its auxiliary engines, which were normally used to power vital systems. But the systems – lighting, pumps, computers, air conditioning – churned on. The Long Beach Bridge became the first ship at the Port to plug into shoreside electrical power, eliminating the need to burn diesel fuel to “keep the lights on” during its stay and preventing the accompanying emissions from escaping into the harbor air. Today, container ships at all of California’s major ports use shore power, thanks to technology developed at
























