Port Electrification as Strategic Innovation: Integrating Port Technology,Policy,and Management for Decarbonization

Abstract

Port electrification has emerged as a popular strategy for achieving port, regional, and global decarbonization goals. This narrative review applies the conceptual lens of strategic innovation to interpret contemporary literature on port electrification and understand its structure and drivers as an innovation process. It first summarizes the environmental sustainability challenges in the shipping sector that are driving interest in electrification strategies. It then explores port electrification literature to identify how its technological, policy, and management innovation dimensions are reshaping port business models. Finally, it presents early implementation cases in the United States, including the Ports of Los Angeles, Long Beach, Houston, Seattle, and Cleveland. Findings show that port electrification innovations improve efficiency in port value chains, enhance the green port value proposition, and better position ports to attract sustainability-conscious users. The strategic innovation frame challenges ports and stakeholders to envision new possibilities for sustainable management and the hurdles to achieving them.