Optimization sizing and economic analysis for stand alone photovoltaic system with hydrogen storage

Abstract

Photovoltaic system has a high potential in the future, since it is clean, environmental friendly and has secure energy sources. However, the intermittence behavior in photovoltaic resource due to their strong dependency on climatic and meteorological conditions made the essential of having energy storage as a backup power supply. This paper proposes a design steps in obtaining the optimal sizing of standalone photovoltaic system, which able to meet a pre-determined power load requirement close to its point of utilization. The keys of system design were, primarily, to satisfy a specific load demand that depends on the power generated from installed PV system and also to maintain hydrogen storage state of charge. A case study was conducted using Kuala Lumpur's meteorological data and typical rural area daily load profile of 2.215kWh. An economic analysis on the system was performed in order to determine system feasibility. The finding shows that the levelized cost of energy for proposed system is RM 1.98/kWh. However, the results of the study showed that if the same configuration is using AGM battery as back-up supply, the system cost is lower and more economically viable, unless the cost of hydrogen storage technologies significantly reduced in the future.