Integrating Hydrogen as a Vector to Decarbonize Corsican Port Areas

This webinar is broadcast in French.

Corsica, as a non-interconnected zone (ZNI), faces costly and highly emissive electricity production. Its ports concentrate a significant portion of these emissions: Ajaccio port alone represents 1,079 tCO₂/year for powering ships at berth, and all five ports studied generate more than 5,150 tCO₂/year in pollutant emissions via their auxiliary engines.

During this webinar, Maude Chin Choi, researcher at the University of Corsica, will present an energy optimization model designed to decarbonize Corsican ports through a hybrid facility combining photovoltaic production, electrolysis, and proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC).

💡 The Corsican challenge: As an island with partial grid interconnection, Corsica massively imports its energy. Ships at berth, powered by their engines, represent a major source of local pollution — NOx, SOx, fine particles — which hydrogen-powered "cold ironing" would eliminate.

🔬 An optimization model across 6 ports: Sizing results cover the ports of Ajaccio, Bastia, Bonifacio, Île-Rousse, Porto Vecchio, and Propriano. For Ajaccio alone, the model proposes a hybrid facility producing 190 tH₂/year thanks to 18,115 MWh of solar energy, reducing emissions from 4,128 tCO₂ to 1,046 tCO₂.

⚡ Transition figures: The hybrid facility by 2050 shows a hydrogen production cost of €7.85/kg H₂ (€5.9/kg H₂ when integrating the full ecosystem), an electricity cost of €129.7/MWh — versus €380.1/MWh in the all-grid scenario — for a CAPEX of €18.6M.

🌍 Webinar agenda:

• Corsica's energy context and import dependency

• Regional hydrogen sector mapping and SRCAE objectives

• Modeling consumption and emissions from ships at berth

• Presentation of the optimization model and case studies (6 ports)

• Sizing results and energy flow management

• Perspectives: geospatial analysis and advanced component modeling

📅 Practical Information
🏢 Organizers: H2CONF
📍 Date: Tuesday, June 16, 2026
🕙 Time: 10:30 AM
🎙️ Speakers: Maude Chin Choi — University of Corsica

We extend our sincere thanks to H2-tracker for its support and contribution to a better understanding of green hydrogen economy development through its near real-time monitoring and analysis of sector growth.

See you soon, The H2CONF Team ⚡💧