Wind Turbine Power System for Hydrogen Production and Storage: Techno-economic Analysis

This paper is concerned with the use of renewable energy sources (RESs) such as wind energy (WE) for the cost effective hydrogen production. The effect of electrolyser nominal power on the cost of hydrogen (COH) produced by an off-grid wind-hydrogen production system (WHPS) is addressed. Furthermore, optimal configuration of WHPS leading to the minimum COH is identified. WHPS incorporating wind turbine (WT), battery bank, power converters, water electrolyser, and hydrogen tank. Battery bank is used as an energy storage system (ESS). The economic analysis is conducted based on the net present cost (NPC) method that provides an estimation of the cost of energy (COE) and hydrogen. This method uses the NPC value and total annual amount of energy and hydrogen produced by WHPS. For the wind potential and hydrogen demand profile conditions considered in this paper, requirement of high ESS capacity due to the necessity to store both extra wind power output compared to the nominal power of electrolyser and wind power output lower than the minimum power input of electrolyser, keep the COH from WHPS uncompetitive with other system design.