Techno-economic study of hydrogen production using PV, wind power and battery storage

Hydrogen is regarded by many scientists as the energy fuel of the future, provided that it is produced by non-polluting renewable energy systems (RES) such as photovoltaics and wind turbines. The majority of studies focusing on hydrogen production with RES have shown that such installations are not yet feasible, at least from an economic perspective, primarily due to significant capital expenditures. Conversely, in this paper, we show that the hydrogen technology can already deliver some interesting investment opportunities. In the present paper, we address a system comprising a 15 MW PV park, wind power, battery storage and a 1 MW PEM electrolyzer. Our study comprises two parts. (i) First, we present the technical analysis of the system. We show how the rate of hydrogen production, here using the term utilization, changes in function of the wind power and the energy capacity of a Lithium-ion battery. (ii) Second, we present the economic analysis. In particular, we provide assessments regarding the payback period of the installation. The results of the study let us conclude that (a) to maximize utilization, it is necessary to combine both source and storage components in a hybrid topology, and that (b) in the best scenario, though the utilization is limited at 65.5%, with a hydrogen price at 6 (sic)/kg, the return of investment can be below the 6 years.