Optimal Planning of Renewable Energy Park for Green Hydrogen Production Using Detailed Cost and Efficiency Curves of PEM Electrolyzer

Installing multi-renewable energy (RE) power plants at designated locations, known as RE parks, is a promising solution to address their intermittent power. This research focuses on optimizing RE parks for three scenarios: photovoltaic (PV)-only, wind-only, and hybrid PV-wind, with the aim of generating green hydrogen in locations with different RE potentials. To ensure rapid response to RE fluctuations, a Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) electrolyzer is employed. Furthermore, this research proposes detailed models for manufacturer-provided wind power curves, electrolyzer efficiency against its operating power, and electrolyzer cost towards its capacity. Two optimization cases are conducted in MATLAB, evaluating the optimum sizes of the plants in minimizing levelized cost of hydrogen (LCOH) using classical discrete combinatorial method and determining the ideal PV-to-wind capacity ratio for operating PEM electrolyzer within hybrid PV-wind parks using particle swarm optimization. Numerical simulations show that wind power-based hydrogen production is more cost-effective than PV-only RE parks. The lowest LCOH, $4.26/kg H2, and the highest LCOH, $14.378/kg H2, are obtained from wind-only and PV-only configurations, respectively. Both occurred in Adum-Kirkeby, Denmark, as it has highest average wind speed and lowest irradiance level. Notably, LCOH is reduced with the hybrid PV-wind configuration. The results suggest the optimum PV-to-wind capacity ratio is 65:35 on average and indicate that LCOH is more sensitive to electrolyzer’s cost than to electricity tariff variation. This study highlights two important factors, i.e., selecting the suitable location based on the available RE resources and determining the optimum size ratio between the plants within the RE park.