Combined photovoltaic and wind power plant planning for the production and transportation of liquefied green hydrogen: A case study of Egypt

Abstract

For the production of renewable hydrogen in Egypt and its transport to growing hydrogen demand centers such as Germany, relatively low costs are given in the literature. These low costs are attracting investors. However, due to the scope of the respective studies, not all techno-economic aspects of the supply-chain that influence levelized costs of hydrogen are considered. This work represents a systematical analysis of the levelized costs of hydrogen in Egypt by using wind and solar power for producing 40 kt per year of green hydrogen. A maximal investment volume of four billion euros, and an available area of 37 km2 in central Egypt is assumed. The techno-economic evaluation of the system, from the production site to the selling location, is conducted by a mixed-integer linear optimization model. Depending on the system configuration and production site, the study reveals energy losses of 52–61% of the harvested energy and a levelized costs of hydrogen of 7.17–12.31 €/kg.