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UK scientists have simulated how a 1 GW off-grid agrivoltaic facility could be used to power hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles in Australia, California (US), China, Nigeria and Spain. Their techno-economic analysis showed that the proposed combination could provide a levelised cost of hydrogen ranging from $3.90/kg to $8.13/kg.
Researchers at the University of Exeter (UK) have simulated a 1 GW agrovoltaic farm for hydrogen production in Australia, California, China, Nigeria and Spain, and have discovered that tomatoes could be the most suitable crop to be installed under solar panels.
“Producing hydrogen with agrovoltaics would be technically and economically feasible also below the 1 GW threshold,” lead author of the research Aritra Gosh told pv magazine . “This scale was not used due to an economy of scale requirement, although the proposed combination may benefit from it. We selected this capacity to provide a clear and understandable benchmark for industry and government stakeholders, facilitating comparisons with other large-scale renewable energy projects. Smaller-scale or grid-connected projects could also be feasible.”
In the study, “ Analysis of large-scale (1GW) off-grid agrivoltaic solar farm for hydrogen-powered fuel cell electric vehicle (HFCEV) charging station,” published in Energy Conversion and Management , Gosh and colleagues explained that the five selected locations are expected to have high hydrogen refueling demand. Specifically, they chose areas close to cities and major roads to avoid additional costs for transporting the hydrogen.
The proposed project configuration includes a 1 GW off-grid agrivoltaic facility, 300 proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyzers, conversion systems, compressors, and storage systems to supply hydrogen to fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs). The hydrogen refueling system consists of high-pressure storage tanks, a hydrogen refueling station, and the vehicle refueling demand.
The agrovoltaic system used 2,272,752 bifacial monocrystalline solar modules with a power of 440 W each and 200 inverters with a nominal power of 500 kW each. The panels were deployed at a tilt angle of 20 degrees and covered an area of ??5,095,083 m2. “In addition to the agrovoltaic photovoltaic system, a ground-mounted photovoltaic solar system was designed and simulated in PVsyst to facilitate the calculation of the equivalent surface area ratio (LER) for each site,” the scientists say. LER is a method used to measure the efficiency of land use in the simultaneous production of crops and electricity.
The techno-economic analysis considered 125 site configurations and took into account net present value (NPV), internal rate of return (IRR), total benefit, simple payback time, capex, opex and levelised cost of hydrogen (LCOH). The proposed combination could reportedly deliver a levelised cost of hydrogen ranging from £3.06 ($3.90)/kg in Nigeria to £6.38 ($8.13)/kg in Spain. It also showed that the Nigerian site had the highest number of HPV refuellings at 3.75 million per year, while the Spanish site had the lowest at 3.11 million per year.
The analysis also showed that tomatoes would be the best crop to grow under the panels, with estimated crop yield losses between 9.40% and 36.94%. “Our analysis looked at tomato crops as being suitable in each of the soil types in the locations analysed,” Gosh said. “Tomato plants are not the most shade-tolerant crops that can be grown in an agrivoltaic system, and therefore highly shade-tolerant crops may reduce crop yield less or even increase it under certain climatic conditions, as the PV field provides microclimatic benefits such as shading from excessive irradiation and heat, and increased humidity.”
According to Gosh, the research results show that combining off-grid agrivoltaics with hydrogen generation is a viable model for improving land utilisation while generating additional income. “The benefits of land reclamation and additional income from electricity generation should offset the reduction in crop yields,” he stressed. “The key findings indicate that all locations demonstrate suitability for agrivoltaic applications.” |
