The Yacht Club de Monaco (YCM) has been preparing for the 2024 Monaco Boat Challenge and they were recently able to reveal the project they have been developing, a pontoon which is capable of hydrogen refueling. This pontoon was developed through a collaboration between (YCM) and SBM Offshore.

The challenge will be held between the 1st and 7th of July 2024 and it will be the 11th Monaco Energy Boat Challenge. The challenge plans to use a pontoon which is able to fill thirty cylinders, whilst also supplying eight teams with green hydrogen. In order to partake in the challenge, the teams must choose whether they will use a nine of thirteen-litre hydrogen cylinder. The next stage in the competition involves each team estimating its consumption, accounting for their choice of power source that they can use to produce energy during the race. The pontoon that YCM and SBM have created weighs 1.3 tonnes and has a 20m2 surface area comprised of floating solar panels. These solar panels are all linked to batteries which are constantly producing hydrogen for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

SBM Offshore agreed to and conducted the instalment of the hydrogen pontoon during January 2024. They made the choice to do it in January, after the company agreed on making this ‘landmark contribution,’ as this will be their sixth year participating in the boat challenge.

In relation to this project, in Italy currently, NatPowerH and Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA) recently agreed to collaborate on the development of a hydrogen refuelling station. This refuelling station has been created with the intention to support recreational boating activity, a station that will be especially useful to the industry that is involved in the competition. The hydrogen-based infrastructure is estimated to be worth 100m euros and the station is due to be installed by summer of 2024. Following this initiative twenty-five Italian marina and ports have agreed to work towards the aim of deploying one hundred fuel stations by 2030.

General Manager of SBM Offshore, Francesco Prazzo, commented that these projects which ‘demand for safe, sustainable and affordable energy are the “biggest challenges of our time.” He continued, “As offshore pioneers, we are convinced the oceans hold the key to meet an urgent need for low-carbon solutions, with hydrogen being part of that response.”