Use of Hydrogen in Off-Grid Locations, a Techno-Economic Assessment

Lorién Gracia, Pedro Casero, Cyril Bourasseau and Alexandre Chabert
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Lorién Gracia: Aragon Hydrogen Foundation, Parque Tecnológico Walqa, Ctra N330, km 566, 22197 Huesca, Spain
Pedro Casero: Aragon Hydrogen Foundation, Parque Tecnológico Walqa, Ctra N330, km 566, 22197 Huesca, Spain
Cyril Bourasseau: CEA Liten, Univ. Grenoble Alpes, DTBH, F-38054 Grenoble, France
Alexandre Chabert: CEA Liten, Univ. Grenoble Alpes, DTBH, F-38054 Grenoble, France

Energies, 2018, vol. 11, issue 11, 1-16

Abstract: Diesel generators are currently used as an off-grid solution for backup power, but this causes CO 2 and GHG emissions, noise emissions, and the negative effects of the volatile diesel market influencing operating costs. Green hydrogen production, by means of water electrolysis, has been proposed as a feasible solution to fill the gaps between demand and production, the main handicaps of using exclusively renewable energy in isolated applications. This manuscript presents a business case of an off-grid hydrogen production by electrolysis applied to the electrification of isolated sites. This study is part of the European Ely4off project (n° 700359). Under certain techno-economic hypothesis, four different system configurations supplied exclusively by photovoltaic are compared to find the optimal Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCoE): photovoltaic-batteries, photovoltaic-hydrogen-batteries, photovoltaic-diesel generator, and diesel generator; the influence of the location and the impact of different consumptions profiles is explored. Several simulations developed through specific modeling software are carried out and discussed. The main finding is that diesel-based systems still allow lower costs than any other solution, although hydrogen-based solutions can compete with other technologies under certain conditions.

Keywords: renewable energy; off-grid; water electrolysis; green hydrogen; modeling program (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (12)

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