Focused on specific mobility such as fishing, pleasure boating and coastal and island services, some smaller ports such as Lorient, Vannes or Boulogne will have to integrate a wider hydrogen network to consolidate their own ecosystem and thus be sufficiently robust in the years and decades to come. Their role will be important on the scale of maritime facades or corridors, but also in the rise of a technical and industrial value chain thanks to the diversification of historical activities. Supporting hydrogen in these ports can therefore take other forms, complementary to those of large industrial or diversified ports.
Hydrogen+ : What benefits can hydrogen bring to your port?
Olivier Blackboard. Having a fueling capacity for boats that will use hydrogen in our ports is strictly in line with the strong positioning of our Sovereign in matters in favor of protecting our planet. Hydrogen in pleasure boating and/or yachting is in its infancy, but we must be equipped when demand arises. Moreover, the mere fact of being equipped and displaying a fueling possibility must be a driving force for people who are thinking of taking the plunge, while it is up to designers and design offices to identify the right equations. Naturally, when talking about studying hydrogen fueling possibilities, we are talking about green hydrogen.
What “hydrogen” deployment strategy (and objectives) do you plan and by when?
Identifying in our ports, to begin with, an area offering the possibility of hydrogen refueling, so that it is green without monopolizing too much port space, leads to having to analyze the project beyond the port perimeter. It is one of the strengths of the Principality to be able to bring together and federate the stakeholders concerned by such subjects which, to be dealt with rationally and effectively, must be done so in a transversal manner.
What means will you implement to achieve this?
The ports of Monaco are thus participating in the think tank on the subject, a group which, around the Mission for Energy Transition, brings together SMEG, holder of the concession contract for the supply and distribution of electricity and gas in the Principality, the Yacht Club of Monaco, the Services and Directorates of the Department of Equipment, Environment and Urban Planning and the Security Authorities and Services.
This working group has brought out ideas and directions with a roadmap that is currently being approved. Its implementation in the short and medium term should make it possible to cover the foreseeable needs of the years to come, a period that will be used to continue monitoring and reflection in order to maintain the positioning of the Principality’s precursors on this type of issue.
