Bahamas and Barbados Move Ahead in Caribbean Shore Power Readiness
The Caribbean shore power story is beginning before the first cable is permanently fixed to the quay. A regional assessment by Kenesjay Green for the Inter-American Development Bank and the Caribbean Shipping Association has placed the Bahamas and Barbados among the region's most advanced markets for onshore power supply readiness.
The finding is striking because it separates readiness from installation. No berth-level shore power infrastructure is yet operating across the region, according to the study summary, but some island economies are already assembling the policy, energy and demand conditions that could make the first projects viable.
Shore power is often discussed as a port engineering project: a berth, a cable management system, a substation, a vessel interface. In the Caribbean, the sequence is more complex. The practical question is whether the power system, regulatory framework, cruise demand and investment case can be made to work together in markets where tourism, energy security and maritime competitiveness are closely linked.
The Bahamas stands out because of the energy infrastructure already forming around Nassau. Island Power Producers describes its Arawak Cay project as a natural-gas combined-cycle plant established to provide shore power to cruise ships docked at Nassau Cruise Port, with excess power available to Bahamas Power & Light. The public company page currently describes the project as 60 MW; the industry summary circulating around the study refers to a 70 MW, approximately $180 million plant. The difference should be checked before publication against the final study or project documents, but the underlying point is clear: shore power readiness in Nassau is being shaped by adjacent generation capacity, not only by port-side equipment.
That matters in a cruise market. Cruise ships carry large hotel loads while alongside, and the Caribbean's destination economy makes the local environmental dividend highly visible. The early demand case for Caribbean shore power is therefore likely to be strongest at cruise berths before it spreads into cargo and other vessel segments. Cleaner berthing reduces local air pollutants, cuts noise, and aligns the visitor economy with the sustainability expectations now shaping cruise itineraries and port investment decisions.
Barbados appears in the same leading group for a different reason. The study summary identifies Barbados as the only jurisdiction in the region with binding port-specific cold-ironing regulations. That gives it a regulatory foundation that other markets may not yet have. Policy on its own does not build a berth connection, but it reduces uncertainty for operators, utilities and financiers. It tells the market that shore power is not a side project; it is part of the port's operating direction.
The Caribbean finding also holds a lesson for Mediterranean and island-state ports. Readiness is not a single asset. It is a package: power availability, grid connection, commercial tariffs, berth configuration, vessel demand, regulation, utility cooperation and bankable project design. A port can have heavy cruise traffic and still lack the grid conditions to support OPS. Another can have strong policy but no near-term vessel demand. The winners will be the jurisdictions that can bring those pieces into one investable programme.
That is why the Inter-American Development Bank and Caribbean Shipping Association context is important. Multilateral finance can help move shore power from aspiration to procurement by reducing early project risk, supporting feasibility work and linking ports with energy-sector planning. Kenesjay Green's regional work is also relevant because the company frames port decarbonisation alongside green energy, green fuel bunkering and wider Caribbean energy resilience.
In island economies, those cannot be treated as separate conversations.
The conclusion is positive but disciplined. The Caribbean does not yet have berth-level OPS infrastructure in operation, and the first projects will need to prove demand, tariff design and technical integration. But the Bahamas and Barbados show that readiness can advance before the equipment is visible. That is how new infrastructure markets often begin: first with policy, power and demand lining up; then with the bankable project; then with the cable.
The Mediterranean faces its own version of the same test, especially in cruise-heavy island destinations and mixed-use ports where electricity supply, sustainable tourism and maritime decarbonisation now meet at the waterfront. The Caribbean study broadens the discussion: shore power is not only a European compliance issue. It is becoming a global question of how coastal economies protect destination value while preparing for cleaner vessels.
