Hooked: Siemens helps cruise ships clean up their act

Munich – If you’ve ever stood at the quayside, waiting for a cruise ship to cast off, you’ll recall the din and the smoke from the funnels. That’s because these ocean giants keep their diesel-powered generators running in port. Hardly a pleasant start to your holiday and a neverending source of irritation to anyone living nearby. Those days are over. Siemens has come up with a solution that allows cruise ships to cover their considerable demand for electricity from the city grid. Special onshore power interfaces electrify ocean liners via massive cables. Sounds easy, but turns out to be complex. That’s because a cruise ship isn’t a toaster and can’t just be hooked up to the regular grid. A glance at the numbers illustrates just how important Siemens’ solution is: From 2009 to 2019, the annual number of holidaymakers opting for a cruise nearly doubled from 17.8 million to around 30 million. In 2020, there were 278 ocean liners in operation worldwide. That’s not counting the more than 500 riverboats dedicated to leisure travel. While the pandemic may have reduced maritime tourism to almost nothing, we can expect it to rebound fast and for demand to keep rising in the years ahead. 

Siemens onshore power solution is already available at the German ports of Kiel (Baltic Quay, Norway Quay), Wismar (MV Shipyard), Cuxhaven, at the Hamburg Cruise Center (in Altona) and in Lübeck (Nordland Quay).  

Additional information can be found here and a video is available here. In German only.