German Shipbuilder To Construct World’s First Fully Electric Battery-Powered Cruise Ship

German shipbuilding company Meyer Werft is planning to construct the world’s first fully electric battery-powered cruise ship, under its Project Vision to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 95%.

“Batteries are now in a state with the energy density and other aspects, safety, life cycle and so on, where we say, now this is the most energy efficient way to do cruises,” said Johannes Bade, a project engineer with Meyer Werft.

Corvus Energy has already developed the battery system for the proposed ship, and it uses the same technology powering electric ferries around the world.

The ship will not have an engine room but instead a massive battery room. It would recharge at port, functioning like the world’s largest floating electric vehicle.

Meyer Werft said the technology is ready, and it could deliver the ship by 2031 if it secures a contract this year, though infrastructure issues remain.

Cruise ships call at 1,500 ports in a year, and now there are only 41 ports that could supply electrical power to one ship.

However, the company believes progress is coming and estimates that 100 European ports could have the needed infrastructure for supporting battery-powered cruise ships by 2030.

Cruise industry leaders say innovations like this are important to reach the international environmental goals.

“It is going to take a mosaic or bundle of solutions to get to net zero for 2050,” said Charles “Bud” Darr of Cruise Lines International Association.

“So every innovation, I think, is something that we add to that mosaic or toolkit or box of solutions that we’re going to use,” Darr added.

The concept is perfect for itineraries where several ports are close, including routes in the Mediterranean, Northern Europe, the Norwegian fjords, the Baltic Sea, and even Florida and the Bahamas, Darr said.