In 2 March the christening of the vessel Eco Livorno took place at the port of Livorno. This is the third hybrid ro-ro unit of the innovative Grimaldi Group GG5G (Grimaldi Green 5th Generation) vessel class.
The brief ceremony was held on the occasion of the ship’s inaugural call in the port of Livorno – her first Italian stop since she left the Chinese Jinling shipyard located in Nanjing.
The event was attended, among others, by representatives of the local authorities and the port community of Livorno, the top management of the Grimaldi Group and some historical customers of the Neapolitan company. The ceremony was opened by the greetings of Luca Salvetti, Mayor of Livorno, Stefano Corsini, President of the Port System Authority of the Northern Tyrrhenian Sea, Gaetano Angora, Maritime Director of Livorno, Matteo Salvini, Italian MP and leader of the Lega party, and Emanuele Grimaldi, Managing Director of the Grimaldi Group.
At the end of the brief speeches, the Eco Livorno was blessed by Mons. Placido Bevinetto, belonging to the diocese of Livorno. The ceremony ended with the cutting of the ribbon and the traditional breaking of the bottle by the godmother Nicoletta Landi, mayor Salvetti’s wife.
The Eco Livorno is the third unit of the GG5G class, which includes the largest and most eco-friendly ro-ro vessels in the world. With a transport capacity of over 500 trailers, these green giants are able to halve CO2 emissions compared to the previous series of ro-ro ships operated by the Grimaldi Group, and even to reduce them to zero while they are at berth: during port stays, GG5G-class ships can in fact use the electrical energy stored by mega lithium batteries with a total power of 5MWh, which are recharged during navigation thanks to shaft generators and 350 m2 of solar panels. Moreover, they are equipped with state-of-the-art electronically-controlled engines and an exhaust gas cleaning system for the abatement of sulphur and particulate emissions.
“The deployment in Livorno of the first three GG5G-class vessels, among which the Eco Livorno, proves the importance that our Group attaches to the Tuscan port, where we have been present for over four decades during which we have increasingly developed the traffic flows of rolling units and passengers”, said Emanuele Grimaldi during his speech. “With the Paris Agreement on climate change, shipowners around the world have undertaken to reduce ship emissions by 50% by 2050; with this investment in new ships, our Group achieves this goal thirty years earlier than the others”.
Tomorrow, at the end of commercial operations, the Eco Livorno will set sail from the Tuscan port to begin serving regularly the ro-ro connection between Livorno, Savona, Barcelona and Valencia.
(Grimaldi)
