Green hydrogen from solar power for decarbonization: What will it cost?

Abstract

Green hydrogen has been touted as the silver bullet for deep decarbonization. For green hydrogen to become a reality, its production must be economically competitive and practically scalable. Much effort is being devoted towards enhancing technologies such as water electrolysis, battery storage, and hydrogen storage. In this work, a detailed optimization model for designing a green hydrogen production facility with minimum landed cost of hydrogen is presented. The model is employed to study green hydrogen production in Saudi Arabia, Australia, Singapore, and Germany and to highlight the impact of geospatial solar irradiance on the facility design. The least production cost of $10.68 /kg-H2 occurs in Saudi Arabia based on the current technoeconomic landscape. The analyses highlight that storing hydrogen molecules in tanks is more economical than storing renewable electrons in batteries for producing green hydrogen. Grid-connected green hydrogen production facilities may yield lower hydrogen production cost but cannot guarantee carbon-free hydrogen. The sensitivity analyses with respect to a few technoeconomic factors highlight that massive reductions in solar panel and battery costs combined with low-interest loan incentives can make green hydrogen cost competitive. Overall, this work offers the research and industry communities a versatile and powerful tool to study the evolving technoeconomic landscape of green hydrogen production.