Tallink's ferry has begun drawing electricity from the shore while berthed at the West Harbour quayside overnight between departures, meaning that the company now 'cold-irons' in Helsinki, Stockholm, and Tallinn.

The ferries Megastar and MyStar connect to onshore power supply (OPS) during their overnight stays at Helsinki and Tallinn, respectively.

During her daytime port visits, the cruise ferry Baltic Queen is cold ironing at Tallinn and Stockholm.

The company's other cruise ferries, Silja Serenade and Silja Symphony, are connected to shore power during their daytime port stays at Stockholm and Helsinki.

According to Tallink Grupp, drawing power from ashore decreases Megastar and MyStar's monthly CO2 emissions by 112t each (1,344t/year), Baltic Queen's by 95t/1,140, and Silja Serenade and Silja Symphony's by 154t/1,872t.

The company's total use of OPS spares the environment some 7,572t of CO2 emissions per year, additionally lowering in-port noise pollution.

"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," Captain Tarvi-Carlos Tuulik, Head of Ship Management at Tallink Grupp, commented.

In September 2016, the three mentioned seaports, as well as the Port of Turku, teamed up to provide new connections with a voltage of 11kV and a frequency of 50Hz.

Photo: Tallink Grupp