Design and optimization of solar energy system with hydrogen energy storage and alkaline fuel cell

In this paper, a novel solar energy system with hydrogen energy storage and alkaline fuel cell is developed in TRNSYS. The solar energy system without electrical energy storage and solar energy system with battery energy storage are established as the reference systems. The life cycle cost is chosen as the optimal objective, and different operating strategies are developed for the proposed system and the reference systems. The optimal variables and dynamic analysis can be obtained after optimization. Various evaluation criteria, including electricity coverage ratio, annual carbon dioxide emission and levelized cost of energy, are used to comprehensively assess the overall performance of the proposed system and the reference systems. Beijing and Shanghai, which belong to cold region and hot-summer and cold-winter region respectively, are chosen as the study sites for case study. The results show that the proposed system has the lowest life cycle cost, which is 186,484.36 USD and 261,467.43 USD in Shanghai and Beijing, respectively. The proposed system has the highest electricity coverage ratio (which is more than 0.5 for most time of the year), the lowest annual carbon dioxide emission (which is 19,099.34 m3 in Shanghai and 31,525.96 m3 in Beijing) and the lowest levelized cost of energy (which is 0.12 USD/kWh in Shanghai and 0.08 USD/kWh in Beijing).