Sea transport has some obvious environmental benefits compared to land-based transport modes, including the small needs for infrastructure, low barrier and congestion effects, and low noise pollution. However, as emissions of air pollutants from land-based sources have diminished dramatically over the last ten to twenty years, those from sea transports show a continuous increase. It is therefore of interest to investigate various ways of reducing air pollutant emissions from sea transport. During loading and unloading operations in ports, emissions from ships often take place close to urban areas. Consequently these emissions are of special interest from a health perspective. One measure aimed at reducing ship emissions in ports is to provide ships in ports with shore-side electricity. The purpose of this study was to investigate the practicalities, costs and benefits of switching from onboard ship generated electricity to shore-side electricity connections, and also to investigate for which type of sea transport systems such measure may be relevant.