UK’s largest Ro-Ro port faces decarbonisation challenge

In 2020, the port handled 23% of the UK’s major Ro-Ro units and 22% of the tonnage, maintaining its position as a critical hub for ferry and freight transport between the UK and mainland Europe.

Efforts to decarbonise the port are under way, with electrification of port equipment a major part. However, while electrification helps reduce direct emissions (Scope 1), it leads to an increase in indirect emissions (Scope 2) due to the carbon intensity of the national grid.

The transition to alternative fuels and hybrid vessels offers promising short-term benefits by reducing local emissions without placing additional demands on the electricity grid, but as James Niemann and Stuart Hillmansen explain in their second paper for Maritime Journal, full carbon neutrality will be impossible without either a 100% renewable UK energy grid or substantially offsetting carbon.

The Port of Dover, in Kent, operates both ferry services at its eastern docks and container and cruise services at the western docks. In 2020, 91% of Ro-Ro traffic between the UK and France passed through Dover, underscoring its strategic importance.

For the port to fully decarbonise, both its operations and the wider UK power infrastructure must transition to clean energy. Until then, hybrid solutions and emissions mitigation strategies remain vital in Dover’s journey toward net-zero.

Download Niemann’s and Hillmansen’s full investigation into the pathways to decarbonising operations – which could set an example of other ports also struggling with how to achieve quite strenuous goals. Their bios are at the end of the paper.