Hydrogen refueling stations powered by hybrid PV/wind renewable energy systems: Techno-socio-economic assessment

Hydrogen is considered as an attractive alternative to fossil fuels in the transportation sector. However, the penetration of Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles (FCEV) is hindered by the lack of hydrogen refueling station infrastructures. In this study, the feasibility of a hybrid PV/wind system for hydrogen refueling station is investigated. Refueling events data is collected in different locations including industrial, residential, highway, and tourist areas. Station Occupancy Fractions (SOF) and Social-to-Solar Fraction (STSF) indicators are developed to assess the level of synchronization between the hydrogen demand and solar potential. Then, a validated computer code is used to optimize the renewable system components for off/on-grid cases based on minimizing the Net Present Cost (NPC) and the Loss of Hydrogen Supply Probability (LHSP). For off grid cases, the results show that STSF attains maximum value in the industrial area where 0.62 fraction of refueling events occur during the sunshine hours and minimum NPC is achieved. It is observed that when STSF attains lower values of 0.52, 0.41 and 0.38 for residential, highway, and tourist areas, NPC increases by 8, 16 and 31%, respectively. This is associated with lower level of coordination between the hydrogen demand and solar potential. The same conclusion can be stated for the on-grid cases. Therefore, for green hydrogen production via solar energy utilization, it is recommended that a tariff should be applied to encourage refueling hydrogen vehicles during the availability of solar radiation while reducing the environmental impact, storage requirements, and eventually the cost of hydrogen production.