Techno-economic Analysis of An Off Grid Hybrid Renewable Energy System for Hydrogen Production

Abstract

The use of renewable energy sources (RESs) such as photovoltaic (PV) and wind energy is one of the promising ways for the decentralized and centralized clean hydrogen (H2) production. In such case, both on and off grid hybrid renewable hydrogen production system (HRHPS) can be used. In this study, off grid HRHPS is completely modeled and investigated from the techno-economic point of view. This system consists of a PV array and wind turbine for clean energy generation. This energy is fed to the electrolyser for hydrogen production. HRHPS includes a lead-acid battery bank as an energy storage system (ESS). In the economic analysis, net present cost (NPC) method is used to determine the total annual cost (ACT) and cost of energy (COE). Furthermore, cost of hydrogen (COH) is equally calculated based on the total annual cost and the amount of hydrogen produced. At the optimal design of HRHPS, the values of COE and COH are 0.47 $/kWh and 26.56 $/kg.