The North German Portof Kiel’s first shore-based power supply plant for shipping was officially inaugurated at the Norwegenkai on 9thMay.
With immediate effect, Color Line’s large cruiseferries can now be supplied with emission-free electric power from the shore with a system built by Siemens.
Both the Schwedenkai Terminal and the cruise shipping terminal at Ostseekai will get shore-based power supply capability for ships this year. Dr Dirk Claus, Managing Director of Seehafen Kiel GmbH & Co, commented: “In future we want to be in a position to use shore-based electricity to cover 60% of the power requirements of ships calling at Kiel. That will mean we will be able to count our-selves among the most eco-friendly ports in Europe.”
Investment in the plant totalled €1.2 mill, of which €400,000 was funded by the state of Schleswig-Holstein.
Norway’s Color Line cruise ferries‘Color Fantasy’ and ‘Color Magic’link Kiel with Oslo on a daily basis. They arrive at the Norwegenkai in the morning at 10 am and leave again at 2 pm. Their annual power requirement for the time they spend in Kiel is about 4 millkW/h.
Color Line Board Chairman, Trond Kleivdal, said: “Our ships are already equipped to draw power from land-based plants and have been plugged in onshore in Oslo since 2011 and in all four Norwegian ports since 2017. Kiel is now another port, which has made available the necessary infrastructure to support and advance our strategy of protecting the environment.
“Now it is up to the German Federal Government, to reduce the renewable energy levies on land power due under the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG) in order to create an improved economic framework.”
