Levelized cost of hydrogen for refueling stations with solar PV and wind in Sweden: On-grid or off-grid?

The European Union expects that hydrogen will play a vital role in future energy systems. Fuel cell electric vehicles currently present a key development path for electrification of the transport sector, which requires infrastructure investments of hydrogen refueling stations, preferably powered by renewables such as solar and wind energy. The economic feasibility of refueling stations depends on geographical locations. This study introduces a model to identify the key cost components of renewable hydrogen for refueling stations, and simulates the performance using solar radiation, wind speed, and electricity price data in a selection of Swedish cities. The study demonstrates the importance of integrating the electricity grid in green hydrogen production. Wind speed is crucial in reducing the cost, whereas solar radiation has less influence. In addition, a combination of solar and wind brings better performance in an off-grid scenario. The most encouraging finding is the cost of 35-72 SEK/kg (3.5-7.2 V/kg), which is competitive with reported costs in other EUcountries, especially since this cost excludes any government support scheme. The study provides a reference for investors and policy makers foreseeing the industrial landscape for hydrogen energy development. (c) 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).