On Monday, the Port of Los Angeles opened its first "Alternative Maritime Power" terminal, allowing a ship to run off of grid power rather than idle its diesel engines for its "hoteling" period in-dock. The Port claims that this is the first such grid-power hookup in the world. The concept is similar to the "IdleAire" project we mentioned last month, but on a far grander scale.

Although the AMP system supports just a single ship, the system does prevent the emission of a ton of NOx and 87 lbs. of particulates per day of use. The shipping firm adopting the AMP is China Shipping, but other companies are now looking at adopting the system. A press release is available, with some additional details (PDF).