On 7th April 2023, Tallink Grupp’s shuttle ropax ‘Megastar’ started using high voltage shore connection facilities at the Port of Helsinki’s West Harbour, while the vessel was berthed overnight in between departures.
Shore power is now used by Tallink’s vessels at Stockholm, Tallinn and Helsinki, which means fewer GHG emissions, and less noise emitted by the company’s vessels during their port stays in all of the region’s major capitals, the company said.
Stockholm was the first port in Tallink’s key home markets to upgrade its port infrastructure and construct high voltage shore power connection dispensers.
‘Silja Symphony’ and ‘Silja Serenade’ were the first ships to be retrofitted with the respective EU standard-compliant shore power plugs and connected to the onshore facility at Stockholm in June, 2019.
Tallinn quickly followed suit in autumn 2020 with five of its quays fitted with the necessary shore connection facilities allowing the ‘Victoria I’ and ‘Baltic Queen’ to plug into shore power.
Helsinki’s Olympia Terminal and West Harbour were the last to complete the shore power connections. Olympia launched its HVSC facilities in August, 2021, while vessels arriving at the West Harbour could make use of shore power on 7th April.
Tallink’s shuttle ropaxes ‘Megastar’ and ‘MyStar’ are now using shore power during their overnight stays at Helsinki and Tallinn, respectively.
The Tallink cruise ferry ‘Baltic Queen’ is currently using shore power at Tallinn and Stockholm during her daytime port stays, and the company’s cruise ferries ‘Silja Serenade’ and ‘Silja Symphony’ are connected to shore power during their daytime port stays at Stockholm and Helsinki’s Olympia Terminal.
The company estimates that connecting the ‘MyStar’ and ‘Megastar’ to shore power facilities during their longer port stays reduces CO2 emissions by 112 tonnes per month (1,344 tons of CO2 per annum).
In addition, being connected to shore power enables Tallink’s cruise vessel ‘Baltic Queen’ to save 95 tonnes of CO2 per month (1,140 tons of CO2 per annum) and cruise vessels ‘Silja Symphony’ and ‘Silja Serenade’ will save 156 tonnes of CO2 per month (1,872 tons of CO2 per annum).
All five vessels using shore power means that the company is reducing its CO2 emissions as a result by 7,572 tonnes per year.
Capt Tarvi-Carlos Tuulik, Head of Ship Management at Tallink Grupp said: “We are pleased that the significant effort made both by Tallink Grupp, as well as our partner ports in Tallinn, Stockholm and Helsinki has got us to a point where our operations are increasingly environmentally friendly and sustainable.
“It has not been a simple project and has required significant investments both on our part in terms of retrofitting our ships with the necessary equipment meeting the EU standards, as well as the ports, but the end result is worth it and an important milestone on our journey of developing sustainable shipping in the Baltic Sea region.
“Of course, this is just one of the many steps that Tallink Grupp, our partner ports and other partners are taking to reduce any negative impacts we have on the environment and to ensure our positive impact on the world around us grows. Our focus remains on finding technological solutions that help us achieve ever greater energy efficiencies for our current fleet, on solutions that enable us to minimise any harmful impacts and we pay close attention to anything and everything that keeps us at the forefront of sustainable shipping,” he said.
Tallinn, Helsinki, Stockholm and Turku signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on a common approach to onshore power supply for vessels in September, 2016.
The ports agreed to provide new connections with a voltage of 11 kV and a frequency of 50 hz.
