Hydrogen from offshore wind: Investor perspective on the profitability of a hybrid system including for curtailment

Shane McDonagh, Shorif Ahmed, Cian Desmond and Jerry D Murphy

Applied Energy, 2020, vol. 265, issue C, No S0306261920302440

Abstract: Accommodating renewables on the electricity grid may hinder development opportunities for offshore wind farms (OWFs) as they begin to experience significant curtailment or constraint. However, there is potential to combine investment in OWFs with Power-to-Gas (PtG), converting electricity to hydrogen via electrolysis for an alternative/complementary revenue. Using historic wind speed and simulated system marginal costs data this work models the electricity generated and potential revenues of a 504 MW OWF. Three configurations are analysed; (1) all electricity is sold to the grid, (2) all electricity is converted to hydrogen and sold, and (3) a hybrid system where power is converted to hydrogen when curtailment occurs and/or when the system marginal cost is low, with the effect of curtailment analysed in each scenario. These represent the status quo, a potential future configuration, and an innovative business model respectively. The willingness of an investor to build PtG are determined by changes to the net present value (NPV) of a project. Results suggest that configuration (1) is most profitable and that curtailment mitigation alone is not sufficient to secure investment in PtG. By acting as an artificial floor in the electricity price, a hybrid configuration (3) is promising and increases NPV for all hydrogen values greater than €4.2/kgH2. Hybrid system attractiveness increases with curtailment only if the hydrogen value is significantly above the levelised cost of €3.77/kgH2. In order for an investor to choose to pursue configuration (2), the offshore wind farm would have to anticipate 8.5% curtailment and be able to receive €4.5/kgH2, or 25% curtailment and receive €4/kgH2. The capital costs and discount rates are the most sensitive parameters and ambitious combinations of technology improvements could produce a levelised cost of €3/kgH2.

Keywords: Offshore wind; Hydrogen; Power-to-Gas; Energy storage; Lifecycle cost; Financial analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (29)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261920302440
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:appene:v:265:y:2020:i:c:s0306261920302440

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/405891/bibliographic
http://www.elsevier. ... 405891/bibliographic

DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2020.114732

Access Statistics for this article

Applied Energy is currently edited by J. Yan

More articles in Applied Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().