Hutchison Ports BEST Barcelona installs solar panels

News 21 Nov 2022 by WCN Editorial

Hutchison Ports BEST terminal has installed 1,832 solar panels occupying almost 0.5-ha on its buildings

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BEST has already contracted electricity with a 100% renewable origin guarantee at the beginning of 2022, and the photovoltaic panels installation is capable of generating 1.18 GWh of electricity, equivalent to the annual electricity consumption of around 200 homes. The installed power is almost 1 MWh (833.56 kWh).

BEST thus joins the growing ranks of port and warehouse companies taking advantage of their buildings to harvest solar power. The company in charge of installing the panels is Solar Profit.

Estefanía Soler, head of sustainability at BEST, stated: “These efforts contribute to further reducing the terminal’s carbon footprint, with BEST’s emissions being 65% lower than conventional manual terminals.

BEST is touted as one of the most sustainable terminals in the Mediterranean thanks to its operations model, based on semi-automation and the use of mostly electric cranes, which in turn generates very high productivity. Barcelona Port Authority is installing shore power on the BEST quay to allow ships to connect to electricity during their stay at the terminal.

In addition, in the past 10 years, BEST has increased local rail traffic in the Port of Barcelona from 3% to 20%. This is thanks to BEST’s own rail terminal, investment in inland intermodal terminals in northern Spain (in Zaragoza, Noain, Villafría, Agoncillo and Miranda de Ebro) by its rail affiliate Synergy, which helps to extend the Port of Barcelona’s area of influence.