Investigation of a tri-renewable energy system coupled with battery and hydrogen storages for a sustainable city

Abstract

A novel integrated energy system, where tri-renewable energy sources are coupled with a battery and hydrogen storage system, is proposed. The objective of this paper is then to investigate and evaluate the overall system thermodynamically for potential applications. Solar, biomass and wind energy sources are considered in the system development, and the potential needs of the community including electricity, heat, and hot water are fulfilled. A fraction of the renewable solar energy is stored in the form of hydrogen to operate the system during the off-peak time. The stored hydrogen is then employed to operate a proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell, and electrical energy is produced for the charging station. Several sensitivity analyses are performed to demonstrate the effectiveness and feasibility of the H2 storage system. The share of H2 power to power (P2P) solution increases from 18.5 % at a photovoltaic (PV) area of 250 m2 to 45.4 % at a PV area of 500 m2. During the charging mode, around 25.5 MWh of excess solar energy is generated from the PV field. The deployment of 500 m2 can generate 769 kg of hydrogen that is stored in the hydrogen storage tank, and it can generate 18.4 MWh of energy from the PEM fuel cell. The calculated hydrogen storage results demonstrate a competitive round-trip efficiency of around 45.5 %.