First cruise liners switch off engines and connect to electric grid

Updated at 12:30pm after Transport Minister announced that a second ship connected to the grid

The Norwegian ship Viking Saturnis was the first cruise liner to power down its engines and operate exclusively through electricity from the national grid.

Viking Saturnis is moored at the Pinto ½ piers and is receiving 3.1 Mega Watts per hour (Photo: Infrastructure Malta)

Following extensive tests conducted on the system over the past few weeks, the passenger ship moored at the Pinto ½ piers is receiving 3.1 Mega Watts per hour.

The €50 million shore-to-ship environmental project, which is partly financed by the European Union will help reduce emissions from berthed ships that will receive an electricity supply from shore rather than leave their engines on.

Later on Saturday Transport and Infrastructure Minister Aaron Farrugia revealed that another cruise liner, Viking Venus, was also being kept running thanks to the shore-to-ship infrastructure. This time it was at Boiler Wharf.

Infrastructure Malta said that this initiative is expected to reduce air pollution from passenger ships in this area of Malta by more than 90%, providing cleaner air to approximately 17,000 families living around the Grand Harbour.

“This initiative is set to position Malta as one of the pioneers in the Mediterranean to implement a shore-side electricity system for passenger ships,” Infrastructure Malta stated.

Last October Economy Minister Silvio Schembri announced that the works on the shore-to-ship project at the Malta Freeport in Birżebbuġa had commenced.

This project is financed by European funds and is expected to be completed by mid-2025.