Hanseatic Nature, an expedition cruise vessel owned by Germany’s Hapag-Lloyd Cruises, has been given the green light from classification society DNV to use shore power.
The 2019-built vessel received green shore power on its recent call in the Port of Kiel. The system was inspected and approved by DNV.
DNV carried out a series of technical tests to ensure trouble-free use and compatibility. Following the tests, the Hanseatic nature is ready to use shore power.
From now on, the expedition ship can receive shore power anywhere in the world, wherever this energy supply is available, according to Hapag-Lloyd Cruises.
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Hanseatic Inspiration and Hanseatic Spirit, Hanseatic Nature’s sister ships, are expected to get approval for shore power use later this year.
According to the company, switching to a shore connection is a complex process. The small expedition ship Hanseatic Nature, which is the first from the completely modernized new expedition class from Hapag-Lloyd Cruises to enter service, requires a voltage of 690 volts in port. This is significantly lower compared to many larger ships. Because of this, a transformer on board reduces the power.
“We are very pleased that the HANSEATIC nature shore power system has now been tested. This brings us an important step closer to our goal of having the shore power systems of all new expedition ships inspected,” Julian Pfitzner , CEO of Hapag-Lloyd Cruises, commented.
According to Dirk Claus , Managing Director of SEEHAFEN KIEL, the Hanseatic Nature was the first of a hundred cruise calls that will be supplied via shore power connection in the coming months in the Port of Kiel.
Using shore power reduces CO2 emissions significantly while ships are docked in port. By 2030, the TUI Group cruise lines, which includes Hapag-Lloyd Cruises, intends to reduce their CO2 emissions by 27.5% compared to 2019. The Science Based Targets Initiative has independently and scientifically verified these ambitious emission reduction targets.
After the luxury ship Europa 2, the Hanseatic Nature is the second ship from the Hapag-Lloyd Cruises fleet to have completed the inspection of the shore power system by DNV.
In the future, a majority of Hapag-Lloyd Cruises’ ships, namely four out of five, will be able to switch to shore power, provided it is available at the respective berths.
Currently, there are fewer than 30 shore power systems worldwide. These are located in selected ports in the USA, Canada, China and Europe – often far away from the ‘exotic routes’ of Hapag-Lloyd Cruises’ new expedition ships.
A recent study estimated that Europe needs to triple or quadruple its installed shore power by 2030 to meet the current ambitions of the FuelEU Maritime regulation and the Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Regulation (AFIR).
Specifically, the study identified 51 ports across 15 EU coastal Member States equipped with 309 MW of shore power, primarily in passenger and cruise terminals, but the current capacity falls short of energy demand, requiring additional power installations.