With a growing fleet of 17 ships, Hurtigruten is the world’s largest expedition cruise line. The company has invested heavily in green technology and such as battery solutions – and is considered the world’s greenest cruise company. By 2021, Hurtigruten plans to operate at least 6 of its ships on a combination of biogas, LNG and large battery packs. The investment involved in building the world’s greenest cruise line will be more than $ 850 million.
‘Our ships will literally be powered by nature. Biogas is the greenest fuel in shipping, and will be a huge advantage for the environment. We would love other cruise companies to follow’, Hurtigruten CEO Daniel Skjeldam says.
Clean energy
There currently are more than 300 cruise ships in the world, many of them running on cheap, polluting heavy fuel oil (HFO). The daily emissions from one single mega cruise ship can according to NGOs be equivalent to one million cars.
Renewable biogas is a clean source of energy, considered the most eco-friendly fuel currently available. Biogas is already used as fuel in small parts of the transport sector, especially in buses. Northern Europe and Norway, which has large fishery and forestry sectors that produces a steady volume of organic waste, has a unique opportunity to become world leader in biogas production.
