Cruise ship leaving San Francisco

Onshore power will be used by about 15 of the 50 cruise ships that come to San Francisco in the next year and as many as 40 after that.

The Port of San Francisco last week became the first in California — and just the fourth port in the world — to hook up a cruise ship to onshore electricity to reduce air pollution, officials said.

The $5.2 million project unveiled Wednesday is expected to remove more than a ton of deadly particulates from the air each year, and that figure is expected to more than double as more ships are outfitted to use the onshore power supplied by the city.

Other ports with onshore power for cruise ships are in Seattle, Juneau, Alaska, and Vancouver.

From the Contra Costa Times