Either my brain is taking a break or this article is confusing. Well perhaps it can be both at the same time. Regardless… It seems the shipping industry is considering going green and the Port of Oakland is experimenting with technology which allows ship to switch to electric power while docked.

 

Connecting to shore-based electricity to power the onboard systems while the ship is docked could eliminate as much as 1,000 pounds of exhaust pollutants during a single containership port call. Now this is one green technology we can all get behind.

 

This technique of connecting to power lines from shore is called cold ironing and a company called APL has developed a technology allowing cold ironing to take place for \$225,000 per vessel as opposed to original industry estimates of 1.5 million. Boy that’s one expensive electric cord. :)