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One of the largest ports in the Midwest is officially starting to decarbonize, thanks to a Biden-era grant program that has so far survived the Trump administration’s assault on all things clean energy.
Late last month, the Port of Cleveland began renovating its main warehouse on the shore of Lake Erie. When the work is complete, Warehouse A will have roughly 2 megawatts’ worth of rooftop solar panels, plus battery storage and numerous charging ports for cargo-handling equipment.
Cleveland, which received a $94 million award from the Clean Ports Program announced by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency last fall, is one of three Great Lakes port groups benefitting from the funding. Although the agency has reneged on many other funding commitments under President Donald Trump, work and payments for the $2.9 billion ports program are still moving ahead.
The country’s more than 300 ports, which ship and receive the materials, food, and other products that Americans rely on, are mostly powered by fossil fuels. Their cranes, forklifts, and other freight-handling equipment burn diesel fuel, and so do the ships and boats docked at those ports, sending not only planet-warming greenhouse gases into the atmosphere but toxic pollution that can harm the people who work and live nearby.
To address both problems, the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority has set a goal of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. “We want to have a lower impact on surrounding communities. We also want to stay ahead of regulations,” said Bryan Celik, a contract engineer for the Port of Cleveland. The goal covers the port’s direct Scope 1 emissions, as well as its Scope 2 emissions for energy use.
Global shipping companies face increasing pressure to decarbonize boats and ships, and technology for wind-powered and battery-powered vessels has improved in recent years.
The U.S. has previously taken steps toward decarbonizing shipping, including by partnering with Norway on the Green Shipping Challenge, but the Trump administration has scuttled progress this year. Trump also opposes a proposed global fee on greenhouse gas emissions that the International Maritime Organization will consider formally adopting this month.
The nearly $3 billion in Clean Ports Program funding nationwide “has transformative potential for U.S. ports,” said Jerold Brito, a program associate with the Electrification Coalition, a nonprofit that helped coordinate a Sept. 25 event on regional port electrification hosted by the Port of Cleveland.
Indeed, Cleveland is not alone in its efforts to clean up its port. The Detroit/Wayne County Port Authority, for example, has an even more ambitious goal of reaching net-zero for its Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 2040, said its sustainability manager, Taylor Mitchell.
Because so much is shipped through ports, Mitchell says, electrifying these hubs of commerce is a “cool opportunity to have a really huge impact on the planet.”
During the late September event organized by the Electrification Coalition, representatives from Cleveland, Detroit, and Hamilton, Ontario, met with contractors and others in industry and nonprofit organizations to share plans and address challenges.
For Brito, this sort of collaboration is key to the success of port electrification.
“Realizing that potential will require buy-in from — and coordination with — the regional networks of industry, nonprofit, and government actors affected by ports’ electrification,” he said.
For example, work at Cleveland’s Warehouse A necessitates collaborating with Cleveland Public Power, the city’s municipal utility. While solar panels and battery storage at the warehouse will eventually provide much of the port’s electricity needs, it still requires more grid power in order to fully electrify.
Other phases of the work will add cabling and connections for vessels to operate with electric power while they’re in port. That “shore power,” or cold ironing, could let boats and ships shut off their diesel engines until it’s time to get underway again.
Additionally, Logistec USA, the port operator, will acquire an electric crane and electric forklifts. And the Great Lakes Towing Co. will build two electric tugboats.
Coordination with other stakeholders also presents challenges for the Detroit/Wayne County Port Authority. “We really don’t have much of a footprint ourselves,” except for a cruise dock, noted Mark Schrupp, executive director for the port authority.
Instead, most cargo carried by boats and ships moves through private docks in industrial port areas around the city. “We’ve definitely got to think of ways to get the private sector on board.”
But companies may not want to take some steps on an individual basis, such as constructing and installing power lines and charging equipment at privately owned docks that would only be used part-time.
So the Detroit/Wayne County Port Authority is exploring alternatives, such as how hydrogen could produce clean electricity aboard a boat that could then act as a mobile plug-in port for docked vessels’ shore power.
Developing shore power calls for even more groups working together on a broader scale. “We really need a standard as much for a port as for a ship, because if there is a mismatch, you would have invested all of that for nothing,” said Hugo Daniel, a doctoral candidate at the University of Sherbrooke in Quebec who researches engineering challenges in shore power. Ideally, Canada and the United States will join forces on a strategy for the Great Lakes that aligns with practices from California, the European Union, and China, he said.
Without standards set at the regional and national level, states and cities that try to compel changes on their own could see shippers simply move to other ports with more lax rules, Schrupp said. While some firms looking to slash their supply-chain emissions might prefer to work with a port that is decarbonizing operations, others might avoid areas that could restrict their diesel use.
Great Lakes ports are big economic drivers. More than 23,000 jobs and about $7 billion in annual economic activity are tied to Cleveland’s port alone, Celik said. Yet it and other inland ports handle a smaller volume of business than most of their counterparts on the East and West coasts, making it that much harder to spread costs and recoup major investments like electrification.
“Like all previous transitions, the electrification transition will present novel challenges and opportunities,” Brito said. “So Great Lakes ports must remain nimble.”
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