NORFOLK, Va. — “All of our electric is 100% renewable,” said Cathie Vick the Port of Virginia’s Chief Development and Public Affairs Officer.
Each year the Port of Virginia moves about 1.8 million containers.
They’re handled by powerful and heavy machinery like cranes and forklifts.
Since 2017, the port has been working to replace aging machinery with newer and greener technology.
“We're going from all of the carbon and NOx and things associated with diesel to zero emissions for all of that equipment.”
Vick made some time to chat with us about their goal towards becoming a net-zero operation by 2040.
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In January, the port reached the major milestone of using clean energy to power their operations, and worked with Dominion Energy on a power purchase agreement to beat their goals 8 years ahead of schedule.
“We took that baseline of what they're already providing to us through that,” said Vick. “And then we purchased dedicated solar from four facilities that are built around the Commonwealth. So, it's all solar energy that's being produced here in Virginia.”
The port currently operates 116 electric stacking cranes, four electric rail cranes, and 27 ship-to-shore cranes, enabling them to reduce their emissions by 45% per container.
“The rail mounted gantry cranes will move those import boxes over to the truck side. And we have a truck reservation system so that those boxes are in place. And that allows our trucks to get in and out within 40 minutes, sometimes less. So that also reduces emissions because of the lack of idling time.”
And that’s not the only thing they’re working on converting to clean energy.
Shuttle trucks at the port are currently hybrid diesel electric vehicles, but they have plans to convert them all running on clean energy.
“So, 90% reduction in emissions using those and 50% less fuel cost, which is also right, a big bonus,” Vick told me.
They’ll now be focusing on their remaining fleets that are still using diesel and cutting out those exhaust emissions, continuing their goal of differentiating themselves by aligning their sustainability goals with their customers and partners and bringing more business and jobs to Virginia.
“As the most modern gateway in North America, it puts us in a position to really be a thought leader, right? So other ports across the country can look to us. We didn't we haven't had mandates. We've done it because it's the right thing to do,” said Vick. “We do want hopefully to inspire others to do the same.”
