Big plans and a big outlay for Spanish ports’ low-carbon targets

OCEAN CAPITAL PARTNERS (OCP) calculate that Spanish ports will require a €4.5 billion investment if they are to meet low-carbon energy targets.

This is the amount that will be needed nationwide for installing renewable energy sources, electrification of ports and producing biofuel for vessels.

OCP, which manages the passenger terminals at the ports of Malaga and Algeciras and is the majority shareholder in Malaga’s super-yacht marina, estimates that producing biofuels like methanol, ethanol or hydrogen alone would account for €4 billion.

Reducing Spanish ports’ carbon footprint to 50 per cent of 2019’s figure will require installing 300 megawatts of renewables, involving almost €300 million.  It will cost another €450 million to provide the electricity supply for vessels in all Spanish ports while complying with European directives, OCP believes.

These decarbonisation objectives were included in the central governments Strategic Framework for General Interest Ports approved in 2022 which set out a route map for an informatically smart, well-connected  system able to deal with freight and passengers in safe and sustainable conditions.

For OCP, meeting these targets involves challenges like digitising the ports, which it considers will require greater public-private collaboration.

The company also warns of the danger that there could plans afoot to finance some of these investments with an increase in port taxes which could adversely affect the sector’s competitivity.  Low-carbon objectives also ran the risk of diverting sea traffic to other ports – in Africa for instance – with fewer environmental concerns that were also uncomfortably close to Algeciras, OCP said.

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