Energy saving evaluation of PEFC systems with solar cell and battery

Abstract

The main objective of this study is to evaluate energy saving potentials of polymer electrolyte fuel cell cogeneration systems integrated with solar cell and battery installed into residential houses. There exist many alternative operational policies in the above systems, and the mathematical planning approach is taken to derive the rational system's operational solution based on the mixed-integer linear planning method. In the numerical analysis of this study, energy saving characteristics of 12 alternative systems are compared respectively, and as one of main obtained results, it become clear that the energy saving effects to install battery into the systems depend largely on the operational policy of the system together with the evaluation criterion of adverse electricity from the solar cell to the electric grid. In other words, in the case of giving high priority to the self-consumption of electricity from the solar cell within the house, the energy saving potential to install battery increases largely, but few effects are noticed in other cases.