UPDATE: Hamburg aims to make shore power available to all cruise ships by 2027

The Port of Hamburg will have shore power facilities at all of its cruise terminals from 2027 and expects ships to make use of them.

IMAGE: The Port of Hamburg by the Elbe river. Getty Images

The story has been updated with the number of ships ready to use shore power in Hamburg, sorted by cruise liner.

The shore power facilities are already available at the Altona and Steinwerder cruise terminals and will be installed and trialled at the new terminal in HafenCity next year, the port authority said in a press release.

The existing facilities are already widely used and the port has signed shore power contracts with cruise lines, including AIDA Cruises, MSC Cruises, TUI Cruises, Norwegian Cruise Line, Phoenix Reisen and Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines.

Of the 37 cruise ships on a list shared with ENGINE by a Hamburg Port Authority spokesperson, eight are not certified or equipped to use shore power at either of the Altona and Steinwerder cruise terminals.

The cruise lines with the most ships that can connect to shore power at either or both of these terminals are:

• AIDA Cruises (7)
• Hapag-Lloyd Cruises, TUI Cruises (4 each)
• Cunard Line, Princess Cruises (3 each)
• MSC Cruises, Phoenix Reisen (2 each)
• Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines, P&O Cruises, Costa Cruises, Crystal Cruises, Norwegian Cruise Line, Seabourn (1 each)
• Disney Cruise Line has one ship that is expected to be ready by next month.

This comes ahead of a European Union (EU) mandate requiring all passenger and container vessels calling at Trans-European Network (TEN-T) ports like Hamburg to use shore power from 2030, unless they use another zero-emission technology.

Ships can cut their greenhouse gas emissions by using shore power instead of fuelling their auxiliary engines with fossil fuels while they are docked in port.

An EU-wide study by Brussels-based non-profit Transport & Environment (T&E) said in July that cruise ships produce more than six times more port-side emissions than container ships as they spend significantly more time at berth, and plugging into shore power can cut a ship’s total yearly emissions by a fifth.

By Nachiket Tekawade

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