Northern Germany’s port of Kiel has completed the final phase of construction on its extensive shore power infrastructure.
With this new expansion, the KieL can now supply up to three cruise ships and four ferries with emission-free electricity at the same time.
The port has been providing green shore power to seagoing vessels since 2019, one of the first in Europe.
Last weekend, the the port commissioned its second shore power facility for cruise ships at the Ostseekai terminal, which allows two cruise ships to be supplied with shore power simultaneously.
Another cruise ship can use shore power at the Ostuferhafen terminal.
The now completed extension is the final component of Kiel’s shore power infrastructure, which is now one of the most extensive in the world.
Dr Dirk Claus, SEEHAFEN KIEL’s Managing Director, said: “With this commissioning, we as a port are completing the development of our shore power infrastructure.
“Seven seagoing vessels can now be supplied with green shore power at the same time in the port of Kiel – including three cruise ships.
“We have invested €50 mill in shore power alone in recent years and were already able to reduce ship emissions by 60% last year through shore power supply. By 2026, we will be supplying 80% of all ships with shore power,” he said.
Ostseekai’s new shore power facility, with a capacity of 16 MVA, 50/60 Hz, 6.6/11 kV, is an extension of the facility that has been in operation since 2021 (also 16 MVA, 50/60 Hz, 6.6/11 kV). This means that during double calls at the cruise terminal, both ships can be supplied with shore power.
“In the past and current seasons, there have been several days when both cruise ships wanted to use shore power at the Ostseekai.
“This sends a strong signal: demand from shipping companies for shore power is extremely high, and we are delighted with the excellent cooperation we have enjoyed here,” Dr Claus added.
Construction of the extension began in November, last year and was completed on schedule. The partners for the new facility were PowerCon, Siemens, Inros Lackner and Stemmann.
The project was funded by the Federal Government, the state of Schleswig-Holstein and the European Union.
The Federal and state governments finance came from the Climate and Transformation Fund and the Joint Task for the Improvement of Regional Economic Structures (GRW).
Starting with the daily supply of shore power to Color Line ferries in 2019 and Stena Line ferries in 2021, the port quickly created shore power infrastructure for cruise ships. In 2021, the ‘AIDAsol’ became the first cruise ship to be supplied with shore power at Kiel.
In close co-ordination with various shipping companies, technical conversions were carried out step by step on board and integration processes between the ship and the system were implemented.
In 2024, the number of connections reached 120 cruise ship calls during the season. To date, 24 different cruise ships have used the Kiel facilities for over 270 calls.
Despite a supply interruption of several weeks, due to the construction phase, the port expects a similar volume of shore power for ferries and cruise ships this year, amounting to around 10 mill KWh, as in the previous year.
The shore power infrastructure expansion project was one of the Kiel’s priority projects for reducing CO₂ emissions and air/pollutant emissions from ships while berthed.
Following the opening of the first shore power facility at Norwegenkai with a capacity of 4.5 MVA, 50 HZ, 10kV in 2019, a combined facility for supplying cruise ships at Ostseekai (16 MVA, 50/60 Hz, 6.6/11kV) and ferries at Schwedenkai (5 MVA, 50/60 Hz, 6.6/11kV) was opened in 2021.
In September 2023, a shore power facility was also opened at the freight hub at Ostuferhafen, which connects four berths and has the capacity to supply one cruise ship and up to two ferries (Combined system 16 MVA & 4.5 MVA, 50/60Hz, 6.6/11kV).
Kiel aims to completely eliminating CO₂ emissions by 2030 at the latest.
