Renewable shore power saves cash, cuts emissions for ships on Yangtze River
2023-06-16 19:06:12
By Shen Yuan, Yichang International Communication Studio
Dock… and charge up! Up to end May, shore power facilities in the Yichang section of the Yangtze River had charged ships with 26.34 million kilowatt hours of electric power.
More and more modern ships are powered by batteries and renewable energy. That’s where shore power facilities – dedicated charge stations dotted along the river – come in.
Take the Yangtze River Three Gorges 1, the world's largest electric cruise ship. Its battery capacity is equivalent to around 120 electric cars. How to recharge this huge battery quickly and safely?
Dock… and charge up! Up to end May, shore power facilities in the Yichang section of the Yangtze River had charged ships with 26.34 million kilowatt hours of electric power.
More and more modern ships are powered by batteries and renewable energy. That’s where shore power facilities – dedicated charge stations dotted along the river – come in.
Take the Yangtze River Three Gorges 1, the world's largest electric cruise ship. Its battery capacity is equivalent to around 120 electric cars. How to recharge this huge battery quickly and safely?
Yangtze River Three Gorges 1
The answer is high-voltage charging and low-voltage replenishment. In Yichang, ships like this one are equipped with transformers that can convert 10 kV high-voltage shore power to low-voltage direct current power. While sailing along the Yangtze to other cities, these ships can top up with low-voltage direct current power at other ports.
Electricity workers connect shore power cable to a ship
Home to the Three Gorges Project, Yichang is also an important ecological zone on the Yangtze River. The city has been developing renewable shore power since 2015. By the end of 2020, there were 63 shore power dock facilities in the Yichang section of Yangtze River and two anchorages.
Shore power facilities at Zigui Port in Yichang
Environment officials point out that 26.34 million kilowatt hours of renewable battery power is equivalent to replacing 6,190 tons of fuel oil, reducing 19,500 tons of harmful gases and saving more than 30 million yuan (US$4.21 million) in energy costs.
They estimate that by using shore electricity instead of fuel oil, a total of 9,269 tons of fuel can be saved in 2023 and 27,807 tons of carbon dioxide emissions eliminated.
