The Yacht Club de Monaco aims to be a major player in promoting sustainability in the yachting sector, as demonstrated by the Monaco Energy Boat Challenge.
Attendees of the Monaco Energy Boat Challenge represent a diverse mix of innovators, enthusiasts, and industry leaders, all converging to shape the future of sustainable boating.
The Monaco Energy Boat Challenge returns for an 11th edition. Discover the Energy Class teams now!
As part of the collective ‘Monaco, Capital of Advanced Yachting’ approach, the whole industry is mobilised with leading players from the yachting world involved including the shipyards Sanlorenzo, Oceanco, Ferretti, Lürssen and Monaco Marine.
Attendees of the Monaco Energy Boat Challenge represent a diverse mix of innovators, enthusiasts, and industry leaders, all converging to shape the future of sustainable boating
HAN University of Applied Sciences
The HAN Solarboat is the result of a collaboration between Qconcepts Design & Engineering BV and the HAN University of Applied Sciences. Professionals and students work together to create an efficient solar racing boat.
The project began in 2013, and in 2014 the team competed in Monaco for the first time. Last year, the team came second in the solar category.
We’re facing challenges with our engine heating. So we’re working on two things;Â
1. A new strut with an engine below the waterline – with a carbon screw.Â
2. Reversing the screws on our current motors to achieve better motor efficiency.Â
University of Vigo
CES UVIGO is an interdisciplinary team made up of engineering students and a number of industry professionals. We hail from Vigo, a Galician city in northwest Spain. This city has a historic link with the shipbuilding industry, which is why CES emerged in 2021 with the intention of building a 100% solar-powered, foiling vessel. With our first participation, we hope to catalyze similar initiatives at other Spanish universities.
Our team has been working since 2022 on our first boat. All work lines have focused on creating simple systems that are easily repairable and replaceable.
We have manufactured our own solar panels using commercial cells, which has allowed us to maximize deck space by creating designs from scratch that are fully adaptable to our boat, with exceptional flexibility thanks to a lightweight fiberglass layer.
AGH University of Science and Technology Krakow
Our science club is made up of several different sections working together. These sections are: construction, composite materials, marketing, electricity, software. Each section has two team leaders who manage their section, distributing and coordinating the work. Above them are the main coordinator and the technical coordinator.
The propulsion system is our most significant disadvantage compared to other teams. Our propulsion is too heavy and has a poorly matched helical gearbox. That provides a lack of efficiency in endurance races. We have planned a two-stage modernization process. This fall we are upgrading an old propulsion system for our boat — we are changing the previous stainless steel main shaft to an aluminium alloy one and we are changing the project of elements to give us the possibility of positioning helical gears. We are also changing the first stage, inefficient and heavy gearbox for the planetary one. These changes will provide a higher level of efficiency and decrease the mass of the entire propulsion system. We also investigate new propeller blades for better propellers, which have significantly higher performance, especially during endurance races. Thanks to these changes we will improve our performance in this year’s competition.Â
Technological Museum of Crafts – HTL Wien XX
Instituto Superior TécnicoÂ
Técnico Solar Boat is a student team based at the Instituto Superior Técnico, specializing in the construction of competition vessels powered by renewable energies, namely solar energy and hydrogen, manned and/or fully autonomous. The team strives to compete internationally with its prototypes in endurance, agility and speed tests, striving to achieve the best possible results. In addition, the team also strives to raise public awareness of green electric mobility and its benefits, in order to contribute to a more sustainable future for yachting. The team has been taking part in the MEBC since 2017, winning second place in 2019 and third place in 2022 in the solar class.
This year has been dedicated to perfecting the systems of São Rafael 03 (SR03), the prototype with which the team has been competing in the solar class since 2021, establishing 2024 as the fourth year the vessel will compete in Monaco. More specifically, with regard to the propulsion system, the team will be testing the boat intensively right up to the competition, optimizing motor control and throttle response, as well as resolving problems with the feasibility and watertightness of the propulsion column. The team will also bring a new set of machined propellers to replace the old, damaged ones.
Budapest University of Technology and Economics
We are the BME Solar Boat team from Budapest, Hungary. It’s the first team in the country which has taken part in such an international event. Founded in 2014, we are currently racing with our second boat and have completed the design work of our third boat.Â
We aim to present challenges to our fellow BME students that allows them to apply and capitalize on their knowledge in practical contexts.Â
Over the past year, we have modified our boat’s propeller to improve efficiency. This new design aims to adapt the propeller to the specific working conditions of the boat during competitions. At the same time, we successfully identified and corrected a design flaw that had previously gone unnoticed. Thanks to numerous iterations, we have arrived at a new geometric design that minimizes propeller blade deformation while maximizing propulsive power and overall mechanical properties. The propeller will be manufactured using additive 3D printing technology, using PA6 reinforced with short carbon fibers.
Hogeschool van Amsterdam
We’re a team of nine second-year engineering students. For every team member going to Monaco, it’s their first time. We’re all very excited to be taking part in this year’s solar challenge.
The planned improvements to the propulsion system are as follows: We’d like to improve the blades, and we are testing a new motor as well. In addition, we have begun designing an entirely new propulsion system using a contra-rotary propeller.Â
University of Twente
We are with a team of 17 students from the University of Twente and Saxion University of Applied Sciences. We’ve been participating in the Monaco Energy Boat Challenge since 2017. Since then, we’ve won best tech talk in 2019. Last year, we won a proud 3rd place. This year, with our innovations and changes, we can once again compete for places on the podium. We’re highly motivated and looking forward to meeting and racing against all the other teams.
We haven’t changed the propulsion system from last year. We have designed an upper nacelle and a sleeve to allow the propulsion system to be attached to the new hull.
Gdańsk University of Technology
We are a team founded in 2005 at Gdansk University of Technology. For almost 20 years, we have been creating successive generations of solar boats, with each generation becoming more technologically advanced. This year, our aim is to launch a solar-powered hydrofoil with an improved foil control system, new electrical installations and an energy management system.
University of Exeter
Durban University of Technology
The “SiyaHamba” solar boat will be the first solar photovoltaic racing boat from South Africa and Africa to take part in the Monaco Solar Boat Race. We intend to participate in this event every year, in order to improve the current technology every year, which will ultimately benefit students and industry stakeholders through this applied post-graduate research and technology knowledge transfer.
University of Antwerp
This year’s UAntwerp Solar Boat Team is made up of 14 bachelor’s and master’s students from the Faculty of Industrial Sciences, which was part of the KdG (Karel de Grote Hogeschool) during its early years. The faculty then transferred to the Faculty of Applied Engineering at UAntwerpen (University of Antwerp) and followed the Solar Boat Team, which is now called the UAntwerpen Solar Boat Team. We took part for the first time in 2017 and are determined to improve every year.
The current propulsion system operates below its potential, with one kilowatt of power remaining untapped even when the vessel is sailing at maximum speed. In order to fully exploit the capabilities of the six-kilowatt engine, a new propulsion system is currently under development.
This innovative design incorporates two propellers rotating in opposite directions, with the aim of optimizing power distribution and improving the efficiency of power transfer to the water. These propellers are manufactured using advanced 3D printing technology, in particular the Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing (WAAM) process, which guarantees both precision and durability. They then undergo meticulous milling to exact specifications, ensuring optimum performance.
Fondation Sunflare Solarteam
Sunflare was founded by the end of 2014. We started as a group of students that were working on the project in thier spare time. Now we are a group of young profesionals that are working in several sustainable sectors and we still make time to improve the solar boat.Â
Last year we have suffered a small incident after the finish. due the incident we had to replace all the electronics. all the repairs were the main focus of this year.Â