Efficiency of Small Autonomous Wind/Diesel/Hydrogen Systems in Russia

Abstract

The possibility of storing energy in the form of hydrogen in the small autonomous wind/diesel/hydrogen power systems that include wind turbines, diesel generator, electrolyzer, hydrogen tank and fuel cells are analyzed. The paper presents the zones of economic efficiency of the system (set of parameters that provide its competitiveness) depending on load, fuel price and long-term average annual wind speed.At low wind speed and low price of fuel it is reasonable to use only diesel generator to supply power to consumers. When the fuel price and wind speed increase, first it becomes more economical to use a wind-diesel system and then - wind turbines with a hydrogen system. In the latter case, according to the optimization results, diesel generator is excluded from the system.