Princess Cruises just unveiled a $7 million investment at their San Francisco port facility. The investment makes it possible for their ships to plug into shore power instead of relying on their diesel engines and generators for power.
San Francisco marks the fourth port in the world with this new technology, after Juneau, Seattle and Vancouver. The savings in diesel and the reduction of harmful emissions is obviously quite considerable, since ships are often docked for days in a port with their engines running.
Once at the port, the ships connect through specially designed 3½-inch cables to the shore power grid. The entire procedure takes about 40 minutes, after which time, the engines can be shut down.
Princess Cruises developed the technology almost ten years ago, and nine of their vessels are outfitted with the equipment for shore power.