Bid launched to create green corridor between the port of dover and France

The port of Dover plans to see its' docks being connected to the Grid, ferries run by battery and onshore vehicles fuelled by hydrogen, all by 2040.

Transcript

00:00 Serving the busiest shipping lane in the world, the port of Dover now wants to become one

00:08 of the greenest.

00:11 A feasibility study into establishing a green corridor of the short straits between Dover,

00:16 Calais and Dunkirk has begun.

00:19 It was presented today to this consortium.

00:22 What we want to do is really get together with the three operators, the three ports

00:26 in question and experts from within the maritime field to develop a technological solution

00:32 that will allow us to transfer the amount of power that we need, which is quite large,

00:37 in the short timescales available and dealing with all the nuances of the sea swells, weather

00:43 etc.

00:44 How quickly could this become one of the greenest ports in the world?

00:48 So that is really difficult to answer with all of these challenges.

00:52 We really need help from whether it be legislative, whether it be government support.

00:58 The port handles millions of passengers and freight vehicles every year, with cross-channel

01:04 ferries and cruises.

01:06 These ships mostly run on diesel, a relatively high carbon industry.

01:11 P&O have just introduced a hybrid vessel in a bid to reduce emissions.

01:16 However, the port currently doesn't have the facilities to charge battery-run vessels.

01:22 It would require a connection to the national grid.

01:25 The challenge with Dover is the intensity.

01:27 We've got 13 vessels, they're only alongside for 40 minutes and the amount of energy we

01:33 need is approximately electrical energy, 30 times the energy that's supplied into the

01:38 port today, just to get that into perspective.

01:40 So the port really becomes an energy provider as well as a transport provider.

01:45 So yes, space is really tight here in the port as we know, so we've got to put in new

01:50 electrical infrastructure that also needs to be considered in that overall land use

01:54 project.

01:55 The port of Dover does say it will be many years before the passage turns greener, but

02:00 they hope port vehicles will be able to go low carbon before the end of the decade.

02:06 Gabriel Morris for KNTV in Dover.

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