Juneau pioneered cruise ship shore power 25 years ago; high costs are hampering efforts to expand beyond original dock

Success of Franklin Dock opened the way for more than 40 ports elsewhere to electrify at least some of their docks; but local proposal to add two electrified docks running into ‘sticker shock’

The Carnival Miracle at Juneau’s lone cruise ship dock with shore power on Monday, Sept. 14, 2026. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Independent)

By Pat Forgey

For the Juneau Independent

Juneau was a world pioneer in bringing shore power to cruise ships, making it possible for one of Juneau's top industries to run on clean and cheap renewable power while in port. 

But while that groundbreaking effort started 25 years ago, Juneau still has only one electrified cruise ship dock

That's even as concerns over man-made climate change have led to dozens of other ports to follow Juneau's lead. 

Electrifying docks has helped Juneau — not by just by reducing pollution locally and working toward meeting its sustainability goals — but by helping the cruise ship industry reduce fuel costs, and meet its own goals of reducing emissions and achieving sustainability.

Juneau already uses the fact that the city is powered by renewable energy as one part of its marketing efforts, said Liz Perry, president and CEO of Travel Juneau.

“A good sector of the traveling public is interested in sustainability,” she said.

Adding more hydroelectric power, especially to the ships themselves, can further that effort to attract visitors, Perry said. 

“They want to go to places that are using renewable resources like Juneau is," she said. "And that makes Juneau that much more of a really high-quality destination for them.”

But a single cruise ship can use as much power as a small city, and the cost of new substations and related infrastructure to meet that demand can run into the tens of millions of dollars.

A cost of $50 million has been used in informal discussions over the last few years, something that would likely take assembling multiple sources of money to accomplish. 

A new shore power effort is now underway with design work already begun and nearing an important review stage, said Juneau Port Director Carl Uchytil. The city’s Docks and Harbors Department operates the city's two publicly owned cruise ship docks.

Uchytil said he already knew it would cost more than $50 million. 

Still, Uchytil said he got “sticker shock” when he heard preliminary numbers from the design work that has already been done. That work is being done by electrical engineering firm H3 Solutions from Pasadena, California.

Uchytil said the city has a memorandum of agreement with Alaska Electric Light and Power to manage the design work. 

“We pay AEL&P and they pay H3 Solutions,” Uchytil said.

Early work should cost about $2 million, he said. 

Uchytil said that while he's been shown preliminary numbers, he wasn't willing to make them public yet.

“It's a lot of money, I'm just going to say that right now," he said.

Just design work on big construction projects can cost 5% to 10% of project costs, but Uchytil said design work is pausing at 35% complete, a typical place where major projects halt for review before moving forward.

Juneau's single electrified dock, the privately owned Franklin Street Dock, is used by Princess Cruises. The current goal is to electrify the two publicly owned docks, Alaska Steamship Dock and Cruise Ship Terminal Dock, both north of the Franklin Dock.

The success of the Franklin Dock opened the way for 41 ports elsewhere to electrify at least some of their docks. When it first began in Juneau, Princess ships had to be retrofitted to use shore power. Now all cruise ships scheduled to be built during the next two years will be able to hook up to shore power, according to Cruise Lines International Association.

“What began as a groundbreaking initiative has since become a global best practice,”  said Princess Cruises in a press release highlighting the success of the Juneau project on its 25-year anniversary earlier this year. 

Enabling diesel engines to be shut down in port has avoided more than 80.000 metric tons of emissions, the company said.

• Pat Forgey is a longtime Alaska journalist who has written for the Juneau Empire and Anchorage Daily News. He can be contacted via editor@juneauindependent.com.