Workers will this week start laying cables to send electricity to cruiseliner quays in Floriana, Marsa and Senglea as part of a project that will improve air quality in the Grand Harbour.
According to Infrastructure Malta, the project will cut over 90 per cent of air pollution produced by cruiseliners and ro-ro (roll-on/roll-off) vessels.
The €49.9 million Grand Harbour Clean Air Project will see the installation of electricity infrastructure which would allow these ships to switch off engines that are fuelled by gas or heavy oil. In a statement, IM said it had secured €21.9 million in EU funds of the €37 million required for the first phase of this project.
To date, only Germany's Hamburg and Kristiansand, in Norway, have installed such shoreside electricity facilities.
This week, workers will start laying the first stretch of this 22-kilometre network of 33-kilovolt cables in the Menqa area of Marsa. Electricity will be distributed from an existing Enemalta plc primary substation on Jesuits Hill, Marsa, to the Grand Harbour’s cruise liner quays in Floriana, Marsa and Senglea.
A second stretch of cables will go down Jesuits Hill towards Bridge Wharf and Church Wharf in Marsa. From there, submarine cables will extend the network to Coal Wharf in Corradino, Paola and subsequently to Boiler Wharf, in Senglea, on the other side of the Harbour.
These connections will reach the five main quays that cruise liners use when visiting Malta.
The second phase of the project will extend shore-side electricity to Laboratory Wharf and to Ras Hanzir (Fuel Wharf), in Paola, where IM will be building a new cargo handling facility in the coming years. These two locations will open up shoreside electricity to ro-ro ships that berth at the Grand Harbour to transport wheeled cargo, such as cars and trucks, to and from Malta.
According to preliminary studies, within 20 years Malta will save up to €375 million in costs linked to the air pollution's impact on health, the environment, infrastructure and agriculture. It will also reduce the impact of cruise liner noise and engine vibrations in the Grand Harbour area.
Air pollution is a major public health concern in Malta.
Recent research showed that 83 cruise ships that visited Malta in 2017 belched out 148 times as much sulphur as the country's entire car fleet.
Last year, Europe’s worst-polluting cruise ships called at Malta 122 times, according to a cruise ship ranking.