In 2020, the terminals invested more than €1.7 million in environmental projects, which the Port subsidised through discounts to the tune of €900,000.

The Port of Barcelona also applies annual environmental discounts to shipowners averaging around €2.3 million.

The Port of Barcelona and the terminals operating in its facilities have already begun to take decisive steps towards the energy transition, a strategy in which the Port and the Port Community work together hand in hand. During 2020, the 14 terminals of the Port of Barcelona that are eligible for environmental discounts invested upwards of €1.7 million in projects aimed at decarbonising port operations, reducing emissions, generating renewable energy and starting energy transformation.

In response to these sustainable initiatives, the Port of Barcelona subsidised these terminals with nearly €900,000 in discounts in 2020. Discounts in 2019 totalled €886,000 while investments made by the terminals amounted to €1.6 million.

“The Port encourages the terminals to make environmental investments to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions through measures to improve energy saving or energy efficiency, generating renewable energy with photovoltaic panels or fostering electric mobility”, explains Mercè Conesa, President of the Port of Barcelona.

Environmental discounts represent between 15 and 20% of the activity rate of each terminal. These discounts are “very significant in quality terms, since 50% of the 14 terminals under the scheme are expected to invest in rooftop photovoltaic electrical generation in 2021, helping to generate renewable energy”, adds Jordi Vila, Head of the Environment of the Port of Barcelona.

“These companies are working hand in hand with the Port to harness the capacity to generate renewable energy and prepare for the energy transition, which is key to meeting the challenge of becoming a carbon-neutral port by 2050”, recalls Mercè Conesa.

More than €2 million in vessel fee discounts

As well as offering environmental discounts to its concession-holders, the Port of Barcelona applies several environmental discounts to shipowners to promote improvements in vessels in terms of efficiency, the use of natural gas and batteries, and reducing atmospheric emissions. In this case, the annual discounts applied by the Port of Barcelona amount, on average, to around €2.3 million. “The idea behind these discounts for shipowners is to attract the cleanest and least polluting ships to our port, which helps improve air quality throughout the Port,” says Jordi Vila.

Barcelona was the first port in the Spanish port system to start applying discounts to ships using liquefied natural gas (LNG) and is currently the only port in Spain to apply discounts to cruise ships for reducing NOx emissions.