CO2 and ships

[vic mcclymont]

Last whilst watching Mighty Ships, the North Star, after docking connected a mains cable to a shoreside electrical connnection, thus shutting down the ships power systems.
The statement given was that by using shoreside power their was a reduction in CO 2 emissions.
Now if the ship consumes the same electrical power whether its on generators or shore power, then then the CO2 emissions must be the same, except from different sources.
Is this another one of these green glib statements?

[Captain Kong]

Yes.In think the greens do more harm and damage than the things they are campaigning against.
I just think they are all Barmy.
I have been on ships in the past, where they were shut down at night, we just had oil lamps for lighting.
That was 60 years ago before the Greens were invented.
Cheers
Brian.

[Tony Wilding]

GSNC MV Corncrake ran on battery power from 7pm in port, they were flat by midnight, needed a torch to start the gennie in the morning and put it on the board. a hand start Russel Newbury, it was a pig.

[John Arton]

Due to new legislation regarding noxious emissions from ships, there is a growing trend for ships to go onto shore power when in port. I think that in the USA San Fransisco is proposing that all container ships visiting have to go onto shore power. The thinking behind this seems to be that the amount of power taken from the shore grid will hardly increase the emissions by the shore side generating stations (that may already be nuclear or have scrubbers fitted to there emissions) given the amount of power they have to produce to feed the local population and industries electrical needs. Whereas the amount of emissions by each individual ship generating its own power is disproportianate. Shipowners are running around trying all sorts of experiments to reduce emissions in ports that very strict new International regs. have recently imposed upon them as are port authorities who also have to play there part in reducing emissions from ships.
In Europe all ships at sea in the area from Ushant nortwards have to burn low sulphur fuel to comply with the NOX emisions regs and this usually means burning either marine diesel oil or gas oil, wheras before they only changed from heavy oil to diesel in the last few hours before picking up the pilot or starting their manouvering.
rgds
JA

[Captain Kong]

A few years ago the QE2 was heavily fined for smoke emission in New York whilst alongside Pier 90.
Brian.

[robpage]

A shore based power station which is highly efficient combined with the renewable energy sources will produce less CO2 than a relatively small diesel generator , simply because of efficiencies involved in the scale of things . One of the biggest problems or Con-Tricks of the greens and their friends , i not to show something called the whole of life carbon balance . take a simple example , of an offshore wind turbine , life cycle 25 years , rotor turns , electricity generated is carbon free , but there was several hundred tonnes of concrete in he structure often several miles of copper wire , the manufacturing process involved , when you consider these the windmill is not the New Best Friend that you are led to believe , then you add the back up of fuelled stations for low wind days , add that carbon load in and the windmills live of their subsidy alone . The only sensible way forward in power generation is Atomic , do the sums and it becomes very clear . The bug-gers are lying to us again

[vic mcclymont]

What about the acid they use to flush the metals out of the earth to make the magnets for the rotors.
The method used to obtain the materials for the magnets is highly contaminating to the earth and the workforce.

[robpage]

If many of the " Green " options were put under close scrutiny the maths would fail , I think one of the classics was the offshore turbine farm off Skye , I think there is 30 miles of copper cable attatched to it that was not included in the calculation , Where , so called Green energy wins , is by a) the subsidy , and b) by selling the carbon offset , on its own it is not a viable proposition