Technical and economic potential evaluation of an off-grid hybrid wind-fuel cell-battery energy system in Xining, China

This study proposes a technical and economic evaluation of a stand-alone wind-fuel cell (FC)-battery hybrid energy system for a residential house in Xining, China. The techno-economic analysis of the two different systems including the wind-battery and wind-fuel cell-battery systems has been conducted by employing HOMER (Hybrid Optimization Model for Electric Renewables) software. The optimal allocation of the system types, cash flows, operating conditions, power generation, and sensitivity analysis have all been discussed. The results indicate that the optimal wind-battery hybrid system is more economical, when compared to the wind-FC-battery system, for a house in Xining. The power generation costs of these two energy systems are comparable, which also provides a possibility for the use of wind-FC-battery hybrid power system. Although the wind-FC-battery system is currently expensive, it is an important method to produce hydrogen, which facilitates the widespread use of hydrogen FC vehicles. The wind-battery and wind-FC-battery hybrid energy systems can adequately meet the load requirements for the considered house. The excess electricity from the wind-FC-battery system is less than the wind-battery system, since a portion of the surplus electricity is utilized to electrolyze the water to produce hydrogen.