Dive Brief:
- The Maersk Line will work with the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach to reduce fuel consumption by 10%, along with comparable reductions in diesel emissions, as part of a $125 million energy efficiency makeover of 12 vessels that regularly visit both ports, the Journal of Commerce reported yesterday.
- During the 3 year project, the ports will provide $1 million which will be used toward the installation of high-tech equipment to track vessel emissions and energy efficiency.
- Lee Kindberg, director of environment and sustainability at Maersk likened the equipment to "strapping a Fitbit onto a large container ship."
Insight:
Efforts to reduce emissions and other pollution at West Coast ports has become endemic to the region. Now it's expanding to the vessels it serves.
The ports' joint Technology Advancement Program, known as TAP, is the source of the sizeable economic contribution. Intended to advance clean technology, the TAP program was created more than a decade ago via a joint anti-pollution effort called the Clean Air Action Plan.
Maersk will use tracking devices on 12 ships as part of their $125 million contribution to the upgrade, part of which includes the retrofit toward better efficiency of a dozen ships.The devices will measure fuel output versus speed, engine power, and weather.
