Techno-Economic Assessment of hydrogen production from three different solar photovoltaic technologies

Abstract

Hydrogen has the potential to be considered almost the cleanest fuel of the future and a key contributor toward a low-carbon economy. This latter can be achieved through the production of green hydrogen by electrolysis using renewable energy sources. This work investigates the production of green hydrogen using solar PV-electrolysis configuration. Three different photovoltaic technologies including monocrystalline (m-Si), polycrystalline (p-Si) and amorphous (a-Si) have been used in this study. The aim of this paper is to identify the most suitable PV system for hydrogen production in mountain temperate climate conditions. Therefore, a performance assessment of the aforementioned PV systems has been conducted using data collected for an operation period of 6 years. In addition, the rate of degradation of each technology has been determined, and its effects on hydrogen generation and cost have been examined. The obtained results have shown that p-Si technology has the lowest degradation rate of (0.28%), followed by m-Si (0.41%), and a-Si (0.75%). In addition, key metrics including the levelized cost of energy (LCOE) as well as the levelized cost of hydrogen (LCOH) have been calculated. The findings indicate that the lowest LCOE and LCOH are achieved by p-Si (0.021 $/kWh, 3.59 $/kg), followed by a-Si technology (0.027 $/kWh, 4 $/kg), and m-Si (0.032 $/kWh, 4.34 $/kg). Therefore, the results demonstrates that p-Si is the most cost-effective and favorable technology for hydrogen production in the considered temperate climate.