November 08, 2004 -- EVENDALE, Ohio -- GE reported that five new cruise ships began commercial operation in 2004 powered by GE aeroderivative gas turbines. Cruising at sea are Princess Cruises' Sapphire Princess and Diamond Princess, Royal Caribbean International's Jewel of the Seas, Holland America Line's Westerdam and Cunard Line's Queen Mary 2.
"We are the only gas turbine manufacturer in the world to have gas turbines providing onboard and propulsion power for cruise ships. In fact, the current total of GE-powered cruise vessels is 16 ships, which have accumulated over 300,000 hours in service," said Karl Matson, general manager of GE Transportation's marine business in Evendale, Ohio. "The gas turbines operate on clean Marine Gas Oil and the compact engine design leaves significant extra room for passengers and crew accommodations."
The following is an overview the five cruise ships:
- Sapphire Princess: The newest addition to and the largest ship in the Princess fleet, Sapphire Princess made its maiden voyage on June 13, 2004. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) in Nagasaki, Japan built the 2,670-passenger vessel. The ship features one GE LM2500+ gas turbine-generator set in a COmbined Diesel And Gas turbine (CODAG) configuration with four diesel generator sets.
- Diamond Princess: This ship made its inaugural cruise on March 13, 2004. The 116,000-ton, 2,670-passenger vessel was also built by MHI in Nagasaki, and features the same LM2500+-based CODAG system as Sapphire Princess.
Two additional Princess Cruise's ships - Coral Princess (January 2003) and Island Princess (July 2003) -- feature GE LM2500+-based CODAG systems.
- Jewel of the Seas: The final ship in Royal Caribbean International's Radiance class, the 2,112-passenger Jewel of the Seas was built at Meyer Werft Yard in Papenburg, Germany. Similar to the three other Radiance class ships - Radiance of the Seas (April 2001), Brilliance of the Seas (July 2002) and Serenade of the Seas (August 2003) -- the Jewel of the Seas features two GE LM2500+ gas turbine-generator sets in a COmbined Gas turbine and steam turbine integrated Electric drive system (COGES) configuration. The vessel made its maiden voyage in May 2004.
- Westerdam: This 1,848-passenger ship from Holland America Line embarked on its maiden voyage on April 25, 2004 and is the third of four ships in the cruise line's Vista class. Similar to sister ships Zuiderdam (December 2002) and Oosterdam (June 2003), the new vessel features one GE LM2500 gas turbine-generator set in a CODAG configuration with five diesel-generator sets. The final Vista class ship, Noordam, is slated for service in 2006. All the Vista class vessels were built by Italian shipyard, Fincantieri-Cantieri Navali S.p.A.
- Queen Mary 2: The world's largest transatlantic liner made its maiden voyage on January 12, 2004 powered by two GE LM2500+ gas turbine-generator sets in a CODAG configuration with four diesel generating sets. Each gas turbine-generator set contributes 25 megawatts to the ship's overall 118 megawatts of installed power. Owned by Cunard Line and built by Chantiers de L'Atlantique, this project marks the first time the LM2500+ is used in a dual gas turbine installation on a cruise ship.
To date, 22 LM2500+ and four LM2500 gas turbine-generator sets are in operation or slated for service on 17 cruise ships. All the GE gas turbines referenced above were manufactured by GE Transportation's marine business in Evendale, Ohio; GE Energy in Houston, Texas packaged the generator sets.
GE Energy is one of the world's leading suppliers of power generation and energy delivery technology, with 2003 revenues of nearly $18.5 billion. Based in Atlanta, Georgia, GE Energy provides equipment, service and management solutions across the power generation, oil and gas, transmission and distribution, distributed power and energy rental industries worldwide.
GE Transportation's marine business is one of the world's leading manufacturers of marine products, including gas turbines (6,000 to 57,300 shaft horsepower), medium speed diesels (1,600 to 4,000 shaft horsepower), and main reduction gearing for marine and diesel-electric industrial applications.
Deb Case
GE Aviation
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