Sustainability

One study, one live fee regime, one hard cap

Shore power has been studied and costed, not built, and no date has been set. The fee regime, by contrast, is applied to every call — and traffic is capped on purpose.

Last updated 2026-09-13

Shore power

Studied and costed. Not built, and not promised.

Cruise lines send an OPS specification — voltage, frequency, minimum and maximum power, connection point relative to the stern — with almost every booking. Those specifications are recorded, and they informed the dimensioning of the study.

What exists is a completed phase 1 feasibility study by Sweco. Dimensioned to serve neighbouring ports in the inner Sognefjord, not a single berth. That is why the capital cost is what it is: the case only closes if several ports in the inner fjord draw on the same connection.

The estimate is 70–80 million NOK. Funding would be 100 % privately financed, with an Enova support potential of up to 20 million NOK — potential, not a grant. On the grid side the assessment reads: Grid capacity is the constraining factor. The assessment with the network operator is not concluded..

Where the shore power project stands. Every line is either finished work or work that has not begun.
StageStatusDetail
Feasibility study, phase 1 (Sweco) In progress Dimensioned to serve neighbouring ports in the inner Sognefjord, not a single berth.
Grid capacity assessment Not concluded Grid capacity is the constraining factor. The assessment with the network operator is not concluded.
Cost estimate 70–80 million NOK Capital cost of the installation as studied.
Funding Not secured 100 % privately financed. Enova support potential up to 20 million NOK.
Investment decision Not taken No board decision has been made.
Construction Not started No works have been carried out on site.
Commissioning No date The port does not give a date it cannot hold.
Oblique aerial view of the finished cruise pier: the concrete deck running out along the shore with black fenders down its face, the white gabled terminal building where it meets the land, a timber-clad building with a dark roof on the apron at the far end, and the marked road, green fields and red farm buildings behind
Eidsneset from the air: the terminal building, the apron behind it and the quay deck along the shore.

Environmental Port Index

The fee regime that is already running

Environmental Port Index applies to quay, mooring, passenger and security fees. A ship that performs well pays less than the published tariff, a ship that performs badly pays more, and the port does not negotiate it.

One rule matters more than the rest, because it is the one that goes wrong: values are taken exclusively from the EPI portal (DNV). Reports sent to the port as email attachments are not entered by hand.

How EPI is applied to a call at Skjolden, in the order it happens.
ElementRule
Fees affected Quay, mooring, passenger and security (ISPS) fees.
Source of the score EPI portal (DNV) only. No other source is accepted.
Reporting deadline The ship must report within 72 hours of departure.
If the call is not reported The call is assessed at 0 points — maximum surcharge, not a neutral outcome.
Adjustment range -25 % to +60 %, with the breakpoint at 45 points.
Invoicing Issued after departure, once the EPI value is available in the portal.

Ship generations

The generation decides the footprint

The EU measures every cruise ship's emissions, every year, under mandatory reporting verified by DNV. Read per guest, the gap between ship generations that call here is roughly 3.0× per guest — the newest LNG ships carry a passenger a week along this coast for about a third of the CO2e of the 1988–2000 generation. That is why the port's fee regime prices the environment per call rather than capping ships by size: a cap keeps the gap; the price closes it.

The figures below are derived from each ship's own EU filing — full capacity, and quoted as CO2e with methane slip included, not the smaller bare-CO2 number LNG marketing tends to prefer.

ShipBuiltkg CO2e per guest, 7-day Norway itinerary
Arvia P&O Cruises 2022 362
AIDAnova AIDA Cruises 2018 372
Balmoral Fred. Olsen 1988 1,086
Bolette Fred. Olsen 2000 1,112

EU MRV 2024, verified by DNV (THETIS-MRV, public registry) · kg CO2e per guest, 7-day Norway itinerary, full capacity, methane slip included

Volume

The cap is the policy

Both figures are lower berths, never maximum occupancy, and the port may ask for documentation. Berth allocation follows the confirmed booking timestamp, with one narrow exception set out on the schedule page; any reallocation must still leave the day inside the total above.

Capacity is capped deliberately. Calls have been cancelled by mutual agreement with the line when volume exceeded what the destination should absorb.

The cap is measured against the valley, not against the pier: what the cap protects is set out in full on the local value page.

Berth allocation and booking policy →

Two sheep grazing on a steep green pasture behind a post fence, with the white superstructure and bow of a cruise ship rising over the crest of the hill and cloud lying across the mountainside behind her
The cap is set against the size of the valley that receives the guests, not against the length of the pier.

Discharge and reception

Nothing goes in the fjord

Discharge of sewage and grey water in the fjord is prohibited. The valley behind it drinks from the same catchment.

That is not a request. It is one of the environmental conditions in the terms, which every confirmed call is made under.

Grey water reception is available at the quay on request, and should be requested in advance rather than on the day. Sludge and waste oil are ordered directly from the supplier by the agent, with advance notice to the port for logistics.

Port services, in full →