Utility-scale renewable hydrogen generation by wind turbines

Abstract

In this paper, we use MHOGA software for the evaluation of a hydrogen generation system powered by wind turbines. We study the state of the art of the electrolyzers, obtaining the most important characteristics and costs of PEM electrolyzers. The optimization of a Wind-H2 system is performed, obtaining the best combination of components (wind turbines and electrolyzer) and control strategy for the hydrogen production. We will compare to the Wind-only system (wind farm which injects all the electricity produced to the gird). Two cases have been evaluated regarding the electricity price: Spanish SPOT price of 2019 and of 2021, with an expected increase of 1% annual. The Wind-H2 system can be competitive to the Wind-only system if the hydrogen sale price is 4.8 €/kg for the case of 2019 SPOT prices and 6.7 €/kg for the case of 2021 SPOT prices, considering 1% annual increase in the SPOT prices and 2% for the hydrogen price.