Maximisation of PV Energy Use and Performance Analysis of a Stand-alone PV-hydrogen System

The development of clean hydrogen and photovoltaic (PV) systems is lagging behind the goals set in the Net Zero Emissions scenario of the International Energy Agency. For this reason, efficient hydrogen production systems powered from renewable energy need to be deployed faster. This work presents an optimization procedure for a stand-alone, fully PVpowered alkaline electrolysis system. The approach is based on the Particle Swarm Optimization algorithm to obtain the best configuration of the PV plant that powers the electrolyzer and its compressor. The best configuration is determined with one of three indicators: cost, efficiency, or wasted energy. The PV plant needs to be oversized 2.63 times with respect to the electrolyzer to obtain minimum cost, while for high efficiency, this number increases by 2%. Additionally, the configuration that minimizes cost, wasted energy or maximizes efficiency does not correspond to the configuration that maximizes the annual PV yield. Optimizing for cost results also leads to the best operation of the electrolyzer at partial loads than optimizing for efficiency or wasted energy.