Sustainable Off-grid Systems with Integration of Renewable Generation and Hydrogen-Fuel Cell

Abstract

This paper has investigated the role of renewable hydrogen produced from excess variable renewable energy (VRE) in reducing carbon emission and excess electricity curtailment in off-grid systems. The excess electricity produced from VRE is used for production of green hydrogen by electrolysis of water through Electrolyser in addition to serving deferrable load and battery storage systems (BSS). The hydrogen Produced from VRE sources is supplied to fuel cells to give electricity. The case study is based on modeling and simulation of off-grid systems with photovoltaics (PV) and wind turbines (WT) as two possible sources of power and, BSS and hydrogen as two possible storage media for an unelectrified small rural town called Gara Botora-Kemisie in Ethiopia. A Comparative analysis of the system with diesel generator (DG) and the system without DG is performed to identify a sustainable system for the selected site. Different case studies have been performed for comparison purposes. The results of the simulation show that, the system with PV, WT, BSS and hydrogen fuel cell is more sustainable and fossil free system and viable in reducing renewable energy curtailment.