Abstract
The integration of renewable energy sources into the electricity system can contribute to the development of a low-carbon economy. However, due to the intermittency and non-programmability of these sources, problems related to the management of local electricity grids may occur. A possible solution or limitation to these issues is given by the electrical storage. In addition, in the next future, domestic micro-grids are expected to play a fundamental role in electric power networks, driving both the academic and industrial research interests in developing highly efficient and reliable conversion and storage technologies. In this study, the behavior of a small-scale hybrid energy system for hydrogen production and storage has been predicted, by means of a developed calculation model, and the operational strategy of the system has been optimized with the aim to maximize the hydrogen production. In addition, with the aim to maximize the overall solar-to-hydrogen chain efficiency, the whole system model has been applied to different operating scenarios, to identify the optimal management strategy to control it.
Highlights
In the last years, the growing attention to the environmental issues, such as the need to reduce pollutant emissions or to find alternatives to the fossil fuels, has led to an increase in the efforts of the scientific research to improve the Renewable Energy Sources (RES) utilization [1, 2]
This paper represents a prosecution of the Authors’ previous studies [25, 26]. While in these previous works [25, 26] the models and characterization of each component has been presented, in terms of efficiency evaluation as a function of the boundary and operational conditions, the aim of this paper is to develop a calculation code for the system management, able to simulate the behavior of the whole system and to evaluate the performance of the micro-grid operating with various strategies, to define the optimal one
Some of the strategies analyzed in this paper present a value of the efficiency included in this range, but the considered strategies are quite different from the experimental process
Summary
The growing attention to the environmental issues, such as the need to reduce pollutant emissions or to find alternatives to the fossil fuels, has led to an increase in the efforts of the scientific research to improve the Renewable Energy Sources (RES) utilization [1, 2]. One of the key aspects to be considered for the hybrid systems is the choice of the Power Management Strategy (PMS) In these systems there are many solutions to distribute the energy from the renewable source to the several storage devices and to the electrical load. The choice of the PMS depends on the system configuration and on the aim of the application [20 - 24] In this context, the aim of this paper is the analysis of an experimental hybrid system set-up, composed of photovoltaic panels, batteries and an electrolyzer, in order to define the optimal operational strategy. Different scenarios have been defined in terms of PV panels and electrolyzer off-design operation, allowing to optimize the PMS of the whole system with the purpose of maximizing the hydrogen production and, the overall solar-to-hydrogen chain efficiency. As a support for this study, an experimental test bench is being set up dedicated to the emulation of the physical devices that are part of the microgrid, with the aim of optimizing the management and control strategies of the entire system
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