Evaluating the economic and carbon emission reduction potential of fuel cell electric vehicle-to-grid

Abstract

As part of the effort to achieve net zero, hydrogen will become significantly used in transportation and energy generation by 2050. Hydrogen is fit for long-haul vehicles because of the short refueling time and long range of using hydrogen as onboard storage instead of batteries. Meanwhile, hydrogen can also be used for long-time grid energy storage because of the low material cost and low self-discharge. By using fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) for energy generation, the fuel cells (FCs) in idle FCEVs can be connected to the grid (FCEV2G) and supply electricity to the grid by consuming hydrogen stored in a station. In this way, the hydrogen usage in the transportation and energy storage sectors can be synergically integrated. A mixed integer linear programming (MILP) model is established to simulate and evaluate the economic and environmental potential of the operation of a FCEV2G station. The station's profit and carbon emission reduction potential depend on the traffic and electricity profiles. It is estimated that a net profit of 233,976 USD can be generated and simultaneously 210 tonnes carbon emissions can be reduced, using the historic traffic and electricity data of Alberta. Furthermore, considering the Canadian carbon tax in the optimization increases the net profit and carbon reduction to 246,704 USD and 377 tonnes, respectively. Meanwhile, using electricity data with lower carbon intensity and less fluctuation, e.g., that in Ontario, significant technological improvements are needed to make the FCEV2G station operation economically viable. These results demonstrate the potential of FCEV2G in generating monetary incentives and environmental benefits by integrating the transportation and energy storage sectors.