Wind energy potential assessment for co-generation of electricity and hydrogen in the far North region of Cameroon

Abstract

The fast increase of Cameroon population growth rate and the actual shortage of electricity plaguing the country, particularly in remote areas, give rise to great challenges in the energy generation sector. Nowadays, renewable and clean energy sources are used to foster and improve electricity production via hydrogen generation with water electrolysis. This paper therefore scrutinizes the wind energy potential alongside the electricity and hydrogen generation from wind energy for the cities of Kousseri, Kaele, Maroua, Mokolo, Mora and Yagoua in the Far North Region of Cameroon using wind speed data recorded at 10 m, 40 m and 70 m heights for the years 2011–2021. Several performance indicators including the wind power density, wind turbines power output, wind turbines capacity factor, hydrogen production, cost of produced electricity and hydrogen and payback period are utilized to evaluate the techno-economic viability of the system. This assessment was carried out employing twenty-two commercially accessible wind turbines. Our findings revealed that, Kousseri displays the best hydrogen output with yearly hydrogen production ranging from 3.5054 to 53.232 tons of hydrogen. The annual compressed hydrogen to be saved in this region was found to be in the range of 92.5049 to 1404.70 m3. Enercon E-48/800 turbine records the highest capacity factor in all the chosen locations with the lowest cost of energy varying from 0.0578 $/kWh at Kousseri to 0.0838 $/kWh at Mora. The lowest cost of hydrogen was found to be 4.3865 $/kg for Kousseri, 5.5284 $/kg for Kaele, 5.7160 $/kg for Maroua, 5.9439 $/kg for Mokolo, 6.5065 $/kg for Mora and 6.3354 $/kg for Yagoua employing GE 1.5SL turbine. The highest annual energy output of 3193.9, 2738.1, 2488.4, 2393.9, 2153.3 and 2323.1 MWh was acquired at Kousseri, Kaele, Maroua, Mokolo, Mora and Yagoua, respectively. The shortest payback period was found to be 2.9 years which was related to the case where Enercon E-48/800 wind turbine was assumed to be installed at Kousseri. Finally, the maximum CO2 emission minimization to be achieved if electricity produced by wind turbine is utilized in place of oil burning power plant and power plant that burns natural gas as fuel was 885.36 tons of CO2 and 641.60 tons of CO2, respectively.