Germany’s Meyer Werft Shipyard has recently launched the SILVER NOVA, a new luxury cruise ship that is making waves as the world’s first hybrid vessel with no local emissions when at port. Silversea Cruises, a subsidiary of the Royal Caribbean Group, commissioned the ship, which is set to commence operations in August of this year.
The SILVER NOVA will join Silversea’s fleet as the twelfth ship and will have a capacity of 728 passengers and a crew of 556. It is a 54,700 gross tonnage vessel and will be Royal Caribbean’s first ship to operate mainly on liquefied natural gas (LNG).
Apart from LNG, the SILVER NOVA’s power system includes fuel cells and batteries that are utilized while the ship is docked. This technology has an impressive output of 4MW and can eradicate emissions from the vessel while it’s at the port, even when shore power is unavailable. The system is also designed with peak load leveling, which enhances the power plant’s overall efficiency.
Silversea states that the hull of the SILVER NOVA boasts a hydrodynamic shape that surpasses the Energy Efficiency Design Index (EEDI) by 25%.
Following its launch, the SILVER NOVA will spend its first season cruising around the Mediterranean, after which it will relocate to the Caribbean and South America for the winter of 2023-2024.
It is worth mentioning that Royal Caribbean is also constructing the Utopia of the Seas, which will be the largest cruise ship ever built and run on LNG. The Utopia of the Seas is slated to begin service in early 2024.
