Abstract
Renewable, reliable, and affordable future power, heat, and transportation systems require efficient and versatile energy storage and distribution systems. If solar and wind electricity are the only renewable energy sources, what role can hydrogen and fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) have in providing year-round 100% renewable, reliable, and affordable energy for power, heat, and transportation for smart urban areas in European climates? The designed system for smart urban areas uses hydrogen production and FCEVs through vehicle-to-grid (FCEV2G) for balancing electricity demand and supply. A techno-economic analysis was done for two technology development scenarios and two different European climates. Electricity and hydrogen supply is fully renewable and guaranteed at all times. Combining the output of thousands of grid-connected FCEVs results in large overcapacities being able to balance large deficits. Self-driving, connecting, and free-floating car-sharing fleets could facilitate vehicle scheduling. Extreme peaks in balancing never exceed more than 50% of the available FCEV2G capacity. A simple comparison shows that the cost of energy for an average household in the Mid Century scenario is affordable: 520–770 €/year (without taxes and levies), which is 65% less compared to the present fossil situation. The system levelized costs in the Mid Century scenario are 71–104 €/MWh for electricity and 2.6–3.0 €/kg for hydrogen—and we expect that further cost reductions are possible.
Highlights
The Paris Agreement, which pledges to keep global warming well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to limit the increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius, needs a boost [1]
The techno-economic scenario analysis of a fully autonomous renewable and reliable integrated transportation and energy system for a smart city area is performed in four steps: 1. Location selection, system design and dimensioning, technological and economic characterization for the system components in two technology development scenarios (Section 2.2)
Several major trends can be seen when looking at the FCEV2G, wind and solar electricity production, direct consumption of solar electricity, and seasonal hydrogen storage
Summary
The Paris Agreement, which pledges to keep global warming well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to limit the increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius, needs a boost [1]. The highest emitting 100 cities, or so-called urban areas, account for 18% of the global carbon footprint [2,3]. Cities are increasingly focusing on and shaping the trajectory and impacts of climate change and air quality [4,5,6,7,8,9]. The C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group connects more than 90 of the world’s largest cities, representing over 650 million people and one-quarter of the global economy [10].
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