ELIRE Group, a company offering infrastructure, energy and mobility solutions, said that as global cruise tourism surges past pre-pandemic levels, port infrastructure is reaching a tipping point.

To address this, ELIRE Infra has introduced the Cruise Hub and Power Hub, a floating, modular and environmentally intelligent cruise terminal and energy-to-power source hub designed to meet the spatial, energy and logistical demands of the modern cruise industry.

“The flexibility of the ELIRE Smart Hub platform allows for both homeport and transit operations,” said Luke Jenkinson, CEO and founder of ELIRE Infra, part of the ELIRE Group.

“These hubs also provide shore power and alternative fuel capabilities, such as LNG, methanol and hydrogen, to support the next generation of ships. By extending the cruise season in destinations historically limited by weather or infrastructure, ELIRE Smart Hubs offer a practical solution for the future of cruising.”

Pressure on Cruise Ports

ELIRE said in a press release that with cruise passenger volumes expected to exceed 36 million by 2026, terminals are facing increasing operational and environmental strain.

Ports also face entrenched issues and limited waterfront real estate, making it challenging to expand terminals. These include:

• Growing ship sizes require longer quays and deeper berths
• Environmental regulations require shore power and cleaner logistics
• Transport overload negatively impacting mobility during cruise calls, and
• Berth allocation and cruise lines competing for limited docking slots, with seasonality also seeing terminals inactive for nearly half the year.

Smart Hubs

According to the company, the hubs present a plug-and-play solution providing floating, modular infrastructure that can be rapidly deployed with minimal environmental impact.

The hubs present a scalable and flexible approach that can be added to ports to address the demands of cruise tourism without permanent changes to the landscape.

Features include floating cruise terminals with integrated passenger lounges, as well as customs and security screening areas that can be deployed directly on the water, expanding capacity.

Plug-and-play shore power capabilities enable the hubs to connect to cruise vessels, reducing in-port emissions, noise and fuel consumption.

Smart Hubs can be leased for specific scaled timeframes and relocated to accommodate surges or once-off events.

They also feature smart mobility integration, engineered using a hexagonal modular design that is configurable, ranging from 400 to 1,600 sqm. The leasing model offers flexible terms from five to 20 years.