The new Viking Neptune was delivered to Viking today from Fincantieri’s shipyard in Ancona, and it has a fuel cell installation aboard, according to a press release.
The 930-guest ship becomes the ninth in a series of sister ships for the brand, with deliveries extending out through 2027 for seven more vessels, totaling 16.
The Viking Neptune goes greener, however, with a new a hydrogen fuel cell module aboard with 100 KW of power.
The shipyard said it had been fitted onboard as a test.
“Such installation is particularly important for tuning technological devices and developing rules and regulations for use of hydrogen on board a cruise vessel,” Fincantieri said.
This year Viking and Fincantieri have also strengthened their collaboration going beyond the joint research activity and aiming to develop large scale hydrogen applications, significantly contributing to the reduction of GHG emissions of the vessels, they said in a statement.
As a first step the two companies have designed an enlarged vessel configuration (to be applied to the vessels to be delivered after 2024), defining spaces and arrangements for accommodating the increased size of hydrogen tank, the fuel cell systems and relevant auxiliaries.
The second step will be the development of a hydrogen-based generation system with a total power of about 6 to 7 MW, (the largest size ever tested on board a cruise vessel) and able to ensure smokeless port operation and slow steaming navigation. Such systems, once finalized, could be installed on the vessels under construction and, as far as possible, retrofitted on the vessels already delivered.
