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Hamburg-based Becker Marine Systems has launched its new LNG Hybrid Barge [pictured], which acts like a power plant, supplying low-emission energy to cruise ships.

The technical launch was carried out in Komárno, Slovakia on September 5, 2014. On September 12, setting off from where it was constructed, the vessel is due to make the 1,500-kilometre journey up the Danube, Main and Rhine rivers towards Hamburg.

Once there, technical testing and commissioning will take place at a shipyard. Then, following a naming ceremony in mid-October, the LNG hybrid barge is scheduled to deliver energy to a cruise ship for the first time as part of a joint project with AIDA Cruises.

Speaking during the technical launch, Dirk Lehman, Managing Director of Becker Marine Systems, said: "This is an important day for the shipping industry, because the LNG Hybrid Barge is a big step forward for supplying cruise ships with environmentally friendly energy."

"Thanks to Becker Marine Systems, Hamburg will thus be the first port in Europe to be providing an external, environmentally friendly and low-emission power supply to cruise ships," Becker Marine Systems said in a statement.

LNG will enable the heavy-fuel-oil-powered generators on ships to be switched off during layovers at port. This will prevent the release of toxic emissions.

Delivered only two years after the start of the project, the LNG Hybrid Barge is equipped with five generators with an overall output of 7.5 megawatts (MW), or 50/60 hertz (Hz). These generators will be the first marine-classified LNG Caterpillar engines to be delivered to customers.

On land, an info bus from Hybrid Port Energy GmbH (the operator of the LNG Hybrid Barge and a subsidiary of Becker Marine Systems) will be accompanying the convoy being towed to Hamburg.

From September 12, the barge’s position can be viewd online at www.lng-hybrid.com.

Image: Launch of the LNG Hybrid Barge