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Costa Cruises has taken delivery of Costa Smeralda, the brand’s first ship powered by liquefied natural gas.
The handover ceremony was held at the Meyer shipyard in Turku, Finland, where the new flagship was built.
Costa Smeralda becomes Costa-owner Carnival Corporation’s fourth new ship of 2019 and its second LNG-powered vessel.
The ship is the first of two new sister ships for Costa Cruises that can be powered in port and at sea by LNG.
The second vessel, Costa Toscana, is currently under construction at Meyer Turku and scheduled to be delivered in 2021.
In total, following the delivery of Costa Smeralda and the launch of AIDAnova at the end of 2018 as the world’s first cruise vessel to be powered by LNG, Carnival Corporation has an additional nine next-generation LNG-powered cruise ships on order.
“Costa Smeralda will be a further boost to the use of LNG in cruise ships, a technology our company has pioneered in the cruise sector,” said Neil Palomba, president of Costa Cruises, which has represented Italian style and hospitality for more than 70 years.
“It is an exciting evolution in maritime transport, as it guarantees a significant reduction in our environmental impact.”
Palomba added: “Costa Smeralda is a significant product innovation as well, with Italian hospitality remaining a fundamental and distinctive element of our brand, able to enchant and excite not only new cruise passengers but also more experienced ones.”
In addition to the innovative use of LNG, Costa Smeralda incorporates a series of cutting-edge technological innovations designed to further support environmentally friendly operations.
For example, using onboard desalination systems, Costa Smeralda sources its daily water requirement directly from the sea.
The ship also implements broad initiatives to minimise energy consumption, including LED lights, the ability to recover heat generated by the engines, an innovative hull design to significantly reduce frictional drag, and elevators that recover energy by regenerating it into the electricity system.
Source: breakingtravelnews.com
