Can gov’t give reliable shore power to cruise ships?
Although several sections of the residential and business communities often complain about frequent power outages, Works Minister Kye Rymer has stated that the government is considering a request to provide cruise ships with shore power.
Shore power means the cruise ships would get electrical power from the BVI once they berth while they shut down their engines. While attending the Seatrade conference in Florida recently, Rymer said the government is interested in providing shore power as it would help to reduce emissions from the ships and aid the BVI to reduce its own carbon footprint.
The Minister told a press conference yesterday that instead of tapping into the national grid, the government would engage a private company that would use renewable energy to provide electricity to cruise ships that need that service when they berth.
“I’m thinking we’ll eventually have the conversation where we may send out a Request For Proposal for a company to install a system that would be able to accomodate shore power — not using the fossil fuels but having it attached to a solar farm or something like that,” Rymer explained.
He said shore power would provide an additional revenue stream for the territory, adding that “shore power is another way where they’re utilizing energy so it would be at a cost.”
The government has contracted third party companies to provide services like water, but they’ve traditionally encountered many problems with delivering these to the public. It’s unclear what model they would use to accommodate this service to cruise lines whose entire operations depend on reliable power. With the cost of energy being a major problem in most Caribbean countries, it’s also unclear whether the BVI will have regional examples to emulate as it seeks to establish its own shore power system to accommodate cruise lines.
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How do we generate power?
By burning fossil fuels.
So it’s either the ships burning it, or us.
Makes no difference. It’s just a shift from them vs. us.
It’s all about milking the cow… BVI Electricity will charge double the rate of what the ships could provide for their own power. And then the government will pen a regulation declaring that the cruise ships have to use it.
Maybe once again, this government idea isn’t very well thought out, since each one of those leviathans would be like adding a new town to the BVI.
be careful. do not ruin the tourism economy in the bvi. do not destroy the marine environment that provides food for humans being to survive. the marine environment is fragile and delicate. because of the hurricane season it is vital to protect the islands topography and terrain for human survival. we cannot avoid hurricanes but humans being are responsible for taking care of the environment that we live in.
If this request came from the cruise ship companies, all I can say is, “The cheek of it!”.
First of all, the idea of shore powers is to reduce emissions from cruise ships while they are in port. Here, we burn fossil fuel to generate electricity, so what’s the difference, besides saving the cruise ship company fuel? Will there be a fee to connect, like they charge in marinas here? I’d guess heavy pressure from cruise ship companies for free power or they’ll take their toys away.
Secondly, cruise ships need 6.6 to 11 kilovolt supply. A substation will be needed for that. Where’s the budget for that capital expenditure? US Ports that supply cruise ship power use up in excess of 1 Megawatt-hour per day. See https://nepis.epa.gov/Exe/ZyPDF.cgi?Dockey=P1016C86.pdf
Does VI electricity have the capability to generate reliable electricity at that rate without impacting its customers? See https://www.virginislandsnewsonline.com/en/news/high-electricity-use-overworking-bviec-generators-hon-rymer.
And, will the quality of BVIEC electricity be good enough for cruise ships? Hands up if your electronics and appliances have ever been fried by BVIEC causing you to replace them well before their end of service life?
Ships will need about 1 MW per day each To generate that for just one ship, you’ll need about 6,000 solar panels, that will take up about an acre of space, and cost about$ 4-5 million. You’ll also need space for a substation, probably another $ 2 million. So, you’ll be looking at at $7-10 million investment by a private party. What wlll they get out of their investment? For a 7% return on their investment, they will be looking at something like $ 6-700,000 a month, which is what they can prob earn just on passive income without any of the hassle of operating a solar generating station. People who think up these things are living in an alternate reality.
THANK YOU!!!!!! So many people hear renewable energy and think that you set up a windmill and put a socket on it! Crazy! It will NOT WORK! They are up to some other s**t and using this as a smoke screen.
They can’t keep the power on to serve the Local folk, you trying to give to external folks, this reminds me off them offering to sell fish to the wider Caribbean, when you can barely get the supply locally.
What a ting.
Why are these Gov’t officials shooting themselves in the foot?
If the present-day electrical grid can’t even service 1/10 of the entire country how will it accommodate cruise lines increased electrification and hydrogen demand.
Cruise ships to my understanding require at least 12 megawatts of power while in port which is ascertained from a large solar farm tied to the local electricity grid in order to work. Now tell me, how will BVI electricity accommodate this especially when peak energy demand time is during the countries working hours of 9-5?
Shouldn’t Kye have at least utilized a research plan before going to this conference? That’s what normal thinking people do, but the BVI no, we sail by the seat of our pants and just say anything…God help this nation.
Excellent Transparent comment. Couldn’t have said it any better.
Wonderful comment. THANK YOU.
True, providing the ships with consistent power will be tough.
But it doesn’t change the fact that every day we see these ships just spewing out toxic smoke into Road Town, being breathed by the people across the whole of Town and the hills above it.
Like Pockwood Pond, it is simply poison.
They, and we, are poisoning our people.
We are sick sick sick – the big US dollar is all the our power-brokers care about.
If Kye Rymer wants to limit the pollution from cruise ships in the BVI, there is a solution that is not a delusional fantasy: stop them incinerating their rubbish while in port. These toxic fumes can be easily identified by the white wispy smoke, and smell, completely different from generator exhaust (which is usually scrubbed and clear). Worst culprit is the reliably dirty Norwegian Lines, whereas Virgin and Disney seem to be more environmentally responsible.
The answer is easy, put solar panels on the admin complex building and all the land behind it then run a cord to the dock. *sarcasm off*
Honestly, these guys really sit around and talk so much f**kry they start to believe it!!! Why not focus on the simple things and get them done? Reaching for the stars and you can’t even get to the tree branches.
Get the cruise industry to help finance the solar farm and then power goes back into the grid when no ships are in .
Where will this be?