A comparison of hydrogen storage technologies for solar-powered stand-alone power supplies: A photovoltaic system sizing approach

This paper compares the performance of three different solar based technologies for a stand-alone power supply (SAPS) using different methods to address the seasonal variability of solar insolation-(i) photovoltaic (PV) panels with battery storage; (ii) PV panels with electrolyser and hydrogen (H₂) storage; and (iii) photoelectrolytic (PE) dissociation of water for H₂ generation and storage. The system size is determined at three different Australian locations with greatly varying latitudes-Darwin (12^{{ring operator}} S), Melbourne (38^{{ring operator}} S) and Macquarie Island (55^{{ring operator}} S). While the PV/electrolyser system requires fewer PV panels compared to the PV/battery scenario due to the seasonal storage ability of H₂, the final number of PV modules is only marginally less at the highest latitude due to the lower energy recovery efficiency of H₂ compared to batteries. For the PE technology, an upper limit on the cost of such a system is obtained if it is to be competitive with the existing PV/battery technology.