Development of solar and wind based hydrogen energy systems for sustainable communities

Abstract

Wind and solar are recognized as two of the key options with the highest installed capacity and lowest levelized cost of electricity among renewables. This study comparatively assesses two of these options with a hydrogen energy system to meet the requirements of remote communities. There are three different renewable electricity generation options compared in this study, namely, wind farm, bifacial photovoltaic plant and floating photo-voltaic plant. These three options are then considered for integration with an anion exchange membrane elec-trolyzer, a proton exchange membrane fuel cell, and a heat pump. The proposed system is analyzed by using the first and second laws of thermodynamics by using mass, energy, entropy and exergy balance equations. A time -dependent analysis with simulation is carried out to analyze each hour in terms of energy and exergy balances by considering commercially available component data as well as actual meteorological data. In order to meet all the requirements of the proposed community of the case study in Cochrane, Ontario, a 25 MWp wind farm, 63 MWp floating photovoltaic plant, or 51 MWp bifacial photovoltaic plant are required. The synergetic combi-nation of wind and solar is decreased the overall levelized cost of electricity without grid connection. With a 23 MWp wind and 2.5 MWp bifacial photovoltaic combined system, the levelized cost of electricity is found to be CAD$0.128/kWh. For a period of 25 years, the total amount of capital expenses and operational expenses are found to be CAD$180 M. The overall energy and exergy efficiencies of the presently developed system are found to be 37.68 % and 36.69 % in a typically selected meteorological year.