Carnival Corporation marked the official beginning of construction for the first of its seven next-generation cruise ships that will be fully-powered by liquefied natural gas (LNG), with a keel-laying ceremony at Seatrade Europe in Hamburg.
These new ships will be the first in the cruise industry that can use LNG to generate 100 percent of their power both in port and on the open sea – an innovation that will reduce exhaust emissions, supporting the Corporation’s sustainability goals.
The first ship of the new LNG generation, AIDAnova, will be delivered by Meyer Werft Papenburg in fall 2018.
“Today marked a significant milestone in the construction of this next-generation of Carnival Corporation ships featuring our ‘green cruising’ design, which will be the most environmentally friendly ships in our company’s history,” said Donald, the corporation’s CEO.
In 2015, as a pilot project, AIDAsol from the company’s AIDA Cruises was the first cruise ship in the world to be supplied with power by an LNG Hybrid barge and, last year, the newly delivered AIDAprima became the first cruise ship to routinely use LNG with a dual-fuel powered engine while in port. Its sister ship, AIDAperla, debuted this April with the same technology.
Following the introduction of AIDAnova in 2018, Carnival Corporation’s Costa Cruises brand will debut the industry’s next cruise ship that can be powered completely by LNG on the open seas in 2019.
However, in its latest cruise ship ranking for 2017, NABU accused AIDA for greenwash, regarding filters installment across its fleet. The company responded that it has set clear goals of green policy and invests millions of euros every year in the development and practical implementation of new environmental technologies on board its ships.
