Lu Aye 2004 (accepted) 'Hybrid wind-photovoltaic system with hydrogen storage', Workshop proceedings: Photovoltaic and Wind Power for Urban and Rural Communities, Organised by The Australian Academy of Technological Sciences & Engineering (ATSE) and The Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE), Beijin, China, 20-24 September 2004, pp. 1-9.

Abstract

Renewable energy sources such as solar and wind are intermittent sources. Energy supply systems based on these sources have daily and seasonal variations in their energy output. Therefore storage of energy is required to meet the energy demand when the output is low. Renewable energy combined with energy storage would provide a better system reliability. This paper identifies the benefits and limitations of hybrid wind-photovoltaic system with hydrogen storage. A stand-alone hybrid wind-photovoltaic system incorporating compressed hydrogen gas storage for Cooma (Australia) was investigated as a case study. Cooma has an average annual solar and wind energy availability of 1784 kWh/m2 and 932 kWh/m2 respectively. A system with 69 kWhe/day (load) and 483 kWhe (storage) was studied. Hydrogen is generated in electrolysers using excess electricity from the system. The system components were selected according to their availability and cost. The levelised energy costs for different configurations were reported.

Keywords: Hybrid wind-photovoltaic system; Energy storage; Hydrogen