Wind-hydrogen standalone uninterrupted power supply plant for all-climate application

Abstract

The paper reports about the project for powering the off grid standalone 3 kW power consumer in Arctic, which could be further replicated and scaled up to 50 kW power with minor changes. The project was targeted on the development of autonomous Wind-Hydrogen Powered Plant with the Wind Turbine for initial power generation and Hydrogen Module serving as Uninterruptible Power Supply, for universal usage in any point of the World including the cold zones of Arctic and Antarctic, deserts of Africa and isolated islands characterized by destructive sea salt fogs. At the same time, the equipment is clean, continuous operating, long-lasting and maximally reliable, with no polluting or greenhouse emissions.The components of the Power Plant are developed for the unified DC voltage with an option of adding more on the DC bus bar, scaling the power of the Plant up. It presents a flexibility and modularity in combination with the scalable Hydrogen Storage capacity suitable for different demands of distributed energy consumers including both residential and small business.The comprehensive analysis of the renewable energy sources and in particular wind turbines included the study of the main known types and classes. As a result, the choice was made in favor of proprietary design of innovative multi-tier scalable Vertical Axis Wind Turbine as a main power source, the uninterrupted supply part of which is based on the looped cycle Hydrogen Module containing Electrolyser Module, Fuel Cells Assembly System and Hydrogen Storage with communication and control equipment. The intelligent control algorithms optimize the operation of the Plant minimizing the start-stop cycling phases, stretching the servicing periods and extending the lifetime of the equipment. Remote control provides monitoring and managing all processes of power generation and hydrogen storage via Internet anytime, almost anywhere.The project has proved the presented equipment as long-live, reliable and environmentally friendly, as well as modular and flexible, easily scaled under consumer's control, covering the big power consumption range from personal to small business scale. The developed Power Plant is affordable for the remote energy consumers as the estimated equipment value is correlating with the cost of power line installation using no deep engineering or technological skills.