Cleaning up the city's port has become a priority for Xiamen municipal government, Xiamen Daily reported on Aug 10.

Xiamen Port is one of the main sources of pollution in the coastal city in Fujian province, with high levels of emissions being discharged not only by the ships streaming in and out each day, but also by the facilities huddled around its wharfs.

The port's owners Xiamen Port Holding Group have reaffirmed their commitment to cut down on pollution, and the company recently declared that building a "green, environmentally-friendly, and smart port" has become one of its three main goals.

The company has already begun work toward achieving this ambition. Starting from 2009, it began replacing the use of diesel oil-fueled gantry cranes with electric ones that are more energy-efficient and environmentally friendly, and this project is gathering momentum.

Hairun Wharf, a member of Xiamen Port Holding Group, put its new high-voltage shore power system into operation in late 2016.

The first system of its kind to be rolled out in Fujian province, the shore power system is a zero-emission solution that allows ships in port to switch off their auxiliary diesel generators. Switching off the generators also has the added benefit of reducing noise pollution significantly.

The new system at Hairun Wharf is predicted to save 8,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions and 79 tons of air pollutants being released per year.

Haitian Wharf is also building a shore power system, which should be completed by the end of August, according to Xiamen Container Terminal Group.

The system is also expected to be put into use at Songyu Wharf and Huogui Wharf by the end of 2017.

The shore power system will be installed at more than half of the container wharfs in Xiamen by 2020.

At present, Xiamen Container Terminal Group has 30,100,000 DWT-container berths, so there is plenty of space to promote the shore power system at Xiamen ports.