Surplus Green Power Project Under Way at HHLA

Transporting containers with green power.

HHLA Container Terminal Altenwerder has teamed up with Gottwald Port Technology, Vattenfall, and the universities of Oldenburg, Gottingen and Clausthal to determine how the batteries of heavy goods vehicles can be charged simultaneously when there is a surplus of wind or solar power in the grid.

Coordinated by the Energy Research Centre of Lower Saxony, the research project, Battery Electric Heavy Goods Transports Within the Intelligent Container Terminal Operation, is subsidized by Germany’s Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology for 10.4 million euros (about US$13.9 million).

It is investigating the possibility of coordinating charging times with the terminal’s operating requirements and the peak loads of the electricity grid at the Hamburg-based terminal, a subsidiary of Hamburger Hafen und Logistik.