Yachting Village welcomes hydrogen propulsion pioneer

At the environmental symposium held this week at the Monaco Yacht Club, La Ciotat Shipyards (LSC) announced that the pioneering hydrogen propulsion company HYNOVA has been offered the lot 14 business unit in the Yachting Village on the La Ciotat Shipyards site following a competitive bidding process.  

The multidisciplinary judging panel, which included representatives from GICAN (Groupement des Industries de Construction et Activities Navales),  the management of the companies of the Aix-Marseille-Provence metropolis and from the WeOcean environmental association, was won over by HYNOVA’s ambitious project to design and build a boat that will incorporate a propulsion system powered by the ‘green’ fuel hydrogen.


The call for projects inviting companies to submit proposals for the occupation of lot 14 in the Yachting Village was launched last October to select ‘an innovative company capable of reducing the environmental footprint of large yachts and/or La Ciotat shipyards’. Applications were assessed according to three criteria: the economic feasibility of the project, its impact in terms of jobs created, and its environmental sustainability.

Founded in 2020 by Chloé Zaied, HYNOVA will occupy the completely new, 470 m², premises which will be completed this May. The company will then have three years to consolidate and demonstrate the viability of its business model.

HYNOVA’s initial goal is to begin the build of three boats in the first year and to complete eight within three years. “Beyond that we will have to push the boundaries,” says Zaied. “Personally, I am dedicated to the preservation of the fabulous environment of the Parc des Calanques. I was committed to hydrogen before I learned of the recovery plan because I dreamed of vessels that would emit nothing but water. We will continue to work to improve our product to find ‘clean’ solutions throughout the entire boat lifecycle, even though it is a complex challenge.”



The choice of the HYNOVA project is the result of an in-depth analysis of the benefit and risk balance of the project, and the members of the jury did not fail to point out the many pitfalls that HYNOVA will have to overcome.

However, Sandra Servière, LCS representative on the jury, comments: “Green hydrogen is a technology on which all the big names in the maritime industry are working at the moment. HYNOVA therefore presents a great opportunity for La Ciotat to be at the forefront of this movement.“



Jean-Yves Saussol, managing director of the shipyards, notes the convergence of the HYNOVA project with the industrial strategy being implemented across the territory which favours the hydrogen sector and observes that “the selection jury took a clear-eyed look at the risks presented by the economic and technological aspects of the project. Despite those, the majority opinion that resulted from the panel’s deliberations was that this is a bet worth taking, because it is by taking calculated risks that one can achieve great things.”