Cruise giant Carnival Corporation has announced the rollout of technology upgrades across its fleet to improve energy savings and reduce fuel consumption.
The company said its upgrade programme, called Service Power, will deliver an average of 5-10% fuel savings per ship and is expected to reduce fleetwide greenhouse gas emissions by more than 500,000 metric tonnes each year.
The programme is also expected to generate more than $150 million in annual fuel cost savings.
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Developed over the past six years, the programme includes air conditioning upgrades to cabin and public areas and “major enhancements” to cooling, lighting and automation systems.
The upgrades are part of the company’s ongoing energy efficiency investment programme, which has seen an investment of more than £350 million since 2016.
Upgrade installations will be ongoing through 2023 on ships from the company’s nine cruise line brands: Carnival Cruise Line, Princess Cruises, Holland America Line, Seabourn, P&O Cruises (Australia), Costa Cruises, AIDA Cruises, P&O Cruises (UK) and Cunard.
Bill Burke, chief maritime officer for Carnival Corporation, said: “The Service Power program closely aligns with our long-term sustainability and decarbonisation goals and our highest responsibility and top priority, which is compliance, environmental protection and the health, safety and well-being of our guests, the people in the communities we visit and our shipboard and shoreside personnel.
“Based on our improved fleet composition, including adding six industry-leading liquified natural gas (LNG)-powered ships, and our previous investments to increase efficiency and reduce emissions, our absolute carbon emissions peaked in 2011 despite significant capacity growth over the past decade.
“These tailored service power packages further build on those efforts as part of our comprehensive approach to sustainability.”