In 2013, the AIDAsol will be supplied with electrical energy by an LNG (liquefied natural gas) hybrid barge from Becker Marine Systems while berthed in the port of Hamburg.

AIDA Cruises and Becker Marine Systems have jointly developed, with other partners, a pioneering project for an energy-saving and further emission-reducing power supply for cruise ships at berth in the port of Hamburg.

“We already have 3-liter vessels. The AIDA fleet is prepared for the use of onshore power. With the LNG hybrid barge, we have found a more flexible solution, which shows how modern environmental technology can be used economically successful”, said Michael Ungerer, President AIDA Cruises.

Becker Marine Systems provides the LNG barge hybrid technical solution, and AIDA Cruises, one of the leading cruise companies in environmental technology, provides the know-how relating to the special requirements of cruise ships. The Schramm Group, operator of the first German LNG transshipment port, will operate the barge.

If everything goes according to plan, AIDAsol could be the world’s first cruise ship that is docked in the port of Hamburg Grasbrook City and with supplied with electricity by a LNG hybrid barge in the summer of 2013.

The concept

The energy is produced on the floating LNG hybrid barge with engines from a CHP and generators using LNG.

The so-generated electricity is fed into the supply network of the cruise ship as needed.

Definite plus for man and nature

The energy required for the operation of the cruise ship is no longer generated onboard the ship by diesel engines, but with more environmentally friendly LNG.

Thanks to the energy production with LNG, emissions will be reduced even more. Compared to conventional marine diesel with 0.1 percent sulfur, there will be no more sulfur oxides (SOx) produced in the future while the ship is in port. The emission of nitrogen oxides (NOx) will be reduced by up to 80 percent, emissions of carbon dioxide by 30 percent.

For times with lack of demand for the LNG hybrid barge on the part of the AIDA ships, a land-based partner is already onboard. The Hamburg-based energy supplier E.ON Hanse Wärme plans to feed the produced energy into the onshore grid.