By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Nassau Cruise Port is aiming “within the next 60 days” to launch a project that will generate 100 percent of its energy needs from solar as it targets six million passenger arrivals for 2025.

Michael Maura, the cruise port’s chief executive, yesterday confirmed to Tribune Business that the initiative - which is now only awaiting a Utilities Regulation and Competition Authority ((URCA) permit to proceed - will result in the downtown Nassau tourism “gateway” producing 1.5 mega watts (MW) of energy from renewable sources once completed.

Explaining that the energy generated will be “specific and exclusive” to Nassau Cruise Port’s operations, with no excess sold back to Bahamas Power & Light’s (BPL) grid or its own retail and food and beverage vendors, he added that the project will “cut out any carbon emissions and footprint.

Mr Maura did not give any details on the likely investment or cost savings that will result by eliminating the annual BPL light bill, but told this newspaper the cruise port’s $320m overhaul has transformed it from the “diamond in the rough” first identified its now-controlling shareholder, Global Ports Holding (GPH), in 2016.

He reiterated that the expansion to six berths, with two capable of accommodating the world’s largest cruise ships, has resulted in annual vessel calls increasing from 12,006 in pre-COVID 2019 to more than 1,450 this year and a forecast 1,500-plus next year.

Disclosing that Nassau Cruise Port will be “close” to 2024 projections, with between 5.2m-5.4m passengers arriving at its facilities, Mr Maura predicted that these volumes will breach the six million mark next year and provide an even bigger “launch pad” for tourism-reliant businesses and entrepreneurs.

Global Ports Holding, in its recently-released annual report for the year to end-March 2024, revealed that Nassau Cruise Port is its greatest revenue driver by contributing almost 29 percent of the $193.577m total top-line produced by its 31 ports that span 18 countries.

The report also disclosed that Nassau Cruise Port, for the 12 months to end-March, generated profits of $4.554m based on $55.877m in total revenues for the period with net cash flow from operations pegged at $3.843m. The profit figure is likely a more realistic indicator of annual investor returns given that 2023’s $19.23m bottom line was boosted by the accounting treatment for its $320m construction overhaul.

“The team is working on a solar power project to help Nassau Cruise Port to generate 100 percent of its electricity needs from sustainable sources,” Global Ports Holding’s annual report stated, details of which were confirmed by Mr Maura yesterday.

“We have imported enough equipment for about 1.5 MW of solar for our operations at the port,” the Nassau Cruise Port chief told Tribune Business. “We have received all of the approvals from the Ministry of Works, and then we had to go through URCA for their review and approval, which we have received. We’re just waiting to finalise the permit and the fee we have to send in this week.

“We are going to be utilising our canopies on the piers. They provide a great footprint for the solar panels. They’ll be placed on the canopies that run along the piers where those passengers are traversing. The expectation is that once all the solar is installed, it will meet the requirements for our operations - the power needs of the cruise port.

“That does not include, and would not include, the likes of mega yachts coming in that need to plug into power. Those are small hotels and would draw a lot of power. That’s specific to our operations,” Mr Maura explained.

“The stipulation that’s been placed on us, which we are fine with, understand and respect, is that the solar is specifically and exclusively for our needs and we will not be able to, or be in a position to, feed the grid with any of the excess solar power.”

Large energy consumers, such as resorts and food stores, have been increasingly looking at renewable investments as a means to combat BPL’s high costs and unreliability. However, Mr Maura signalled that Nassau Cruise Port was more focused on potential environmental gains from its solar investment rather than cost savings.

“Everyone looks at renewables as an opportunity to save money,” he added. “We are focused, like many other companies, on cutting out carbon emissions.” Mr Maura said solar installation will commence “as soon as get the final approval, but I would imagine that within the next 60 days we will be starting”.

“It is exclusive and specific to our operations,” he reiterated. “This would not be for our tenants that are consuming a lot of energy for air conditioning because they are using their own meters.” Global Ports Holding added that Nassau-based environmental initiatives even involve use of a 25-foot boat, Pier Pressure, patrol and remove garbage from Nassau’s harbour.

The port operator, which owns 49 percent of Nassau Cruise Port but enjoys Board and management control, revealed that its Bahamian asset is critical to its financial health by generating more than one out of every four dollars in port-based revenue received in its 2024 financial year.

Only Spain was shown as generating more revenue than The Bahamas, coming in at $58.227m compared to the latter’s $55.877m, but Global Ports Holding operates no fewer than six ports - BPL, Barcelona, Malaga, Tarragona, Las Palmas and Alicante - in that nation compared to just one here.

“We, as a single destination, are very capably competing with countries that have multiple ports of call,” Mr Maura told this newspaper. “Within those countries there are also home port opportunities as well, which provide those ports with opportunities to earn more money per passenger versus transient ports such as ourselves where our income is derived from passengers here for a day.

“No one handles more passengers than we do in Nassau. We’re the gateway..... The chairman of Global Ports Holding [Mehmet Kutman] was, has and continues to be very strategic in the selection of ports he searches for. He recognised that, in 2016, Nassau was a rough diamond at the time given its location and proximity to those big home ports of Miami, Port Canaveral and Port Everglades.”

Mr Maura said the “protection” afforded by Nassau Harbour and Paradise Island enables the Bahamian capital, unlike some of its Caribbean competitors, to withstand bad weather when it comes to berthing and accommodating cruise tourism.

“Our harbour lends itself to cruise tourism,” he added. “That’s evident by the six cruise ships we regularly see bringing 28,000-29,000 passengers. That’s why our ability to expand the maritime infrastructure in Nassau Cruise Port has allowed us to increase ship calls from 12,006 in 2019 to well over 1,450 for 2024 and over 1,500 calls in 2025.”

Asked whether the cruise port is on target to hit its 5.4m passenger goal for the 2024 full-year, Mr Maura replied: “We’ll be some place between 5.2m and 5.4m. We’ll be close; we’ll be right there. It has everything to do with occupancy numbers on those ships, and occupancy numbers are running very strong.

“With 2025 just around the corner, we expect and anticipate passenger volumes will exceed six million but the numbers are very healthy.... We’re obviously moving in the right direction and the future is bright given the passenger and ship forecasts we have. We’re good. We’re confident.”

Many observers, though, will continue to argue that per capita and total spending by cruise ship passengers, the numbers who actually leave the vessel when docked in port, and whether the sector’s impact is felt by all tourism-reliant businesses and their employees, are more important factors than visitor numbers.

However, Mr Maura said Nassau Cruise Port’s role is to provide the platform and entrance through which Bahamian businesses and entrepreneurs can extract greater economic benefits from the cruise industry. “This investment is very much about being a launch pad as those millions of people arrive,” he argued, “and what opportunities there are to provide a very satisfying and memorable experience to those visitors.”