Egyptian green hydrogen Atlas based on available wind/solar energies: Power, hydrogen production, cost, and CO2 mitigation maps

Abstract

The current work aims to construct an Egyptian Atlas for green hydrogen production utilizing water electrolysis powered by the available wind (wind turbines, WTs) and solar (PV panels) energies based on Egypt's climatic conditions. Different maps are constructed, including the power density (kWh/m2), hydrogen density (kg/m2), production cost ($/kg), and CO2 mitigation (kgCO2/m2). The weather data (Solar radiation, ambient temperature, and wind speed) of all 27 Egyptian governorates are fed into MATLAB code for one-year analysis. Five scenarios are adopted for power production having the same used land surface: the system is operated by PV only (S1), WTs only (S2), area of PV equal to WTs (S3), area of PV double WTs (S4) and area of PV half WTs area (S5). The results show that S1 has the highest hydrogen production, followed by S4, while S2 has the lowest value. The highest power and hydrogen densities are 378.4 W/m2 and 57.1 kg/m2 in Sohag Governorate, and the lowest values are 7.342 W/m2 and 0.12 kg/m2, respectively, in New Valley Governorate. The lowest LCOH of each configuration is 3.27 $/kg in Sohag for S1, 1.017 $/kg in Red Sea for S2, 2.60 $/kg in Red Sea for S3, 2.91 $/kg in Red Sea for S4 and 2.14 $/kg Red Sea for S5. Finally, the amount of CO2 mitigation ranges from 1.16 to 57.1 kgCO2/m2. Egypt is an excellent opportunity for lower-cost investment in green hydrogen production.