Stand-alone power system

Electrical engineering

Physics

Engineering

Environmental economics

Economics

Power (physics)

Automotive engineering

Organic chemistry

Pumped-storage hydroelectricity

Chemistry

Renewable energy

Electricity

Process engineering

Environmental science

Electricity generation

Hydrogen

Distributed generation

Waste management

Battery (electricity)

Cost of electricity by source

Quantum mechanics

Hydrogen storage

Energy storage

Wind power

Energies

This paper presents a case study of using hydrogen for large-scale long-term storage application to support the current electricity generation mix of South Australia state in Australia, which primarily includes gas, wind and solar. For this purpose two cases of battery energy storage and hybrid battery-hydrogen storage systems to support solar and wind energy inputs were compared from a techno-economical point of view. Hybrid battery-hydrogen storage system was found to be more cost competitive with unit cost of electricity at $0.626/kWh (US dollar) compared to battery-only energy storage systems with a $2.68/kWh unit cost of electricity. This research also found that the excess stored hydrogen can be further utilised to generate extra electricity. Further utilisation of generated electricity can be incorporated to meet the load demand by either decreasing the base load supply from gas in the present scenario or exporting it to neighbouring states to enhance economic viability of the system. The use of excess stored hydrogen to generate extra electricity further reduced the cost to $0.494/kWh.

Hydrogen as a Long-Term Large-Scale Energy Storage Solution to Support Renewables