Techno-economic analysis of a heat and power combination system based on hybrid photovoltaic-fuel cell systems using hydrogen as an energy vector

Highlights: • It proposed a heat and power combination system for a stand-alone application. • Hybridation based on renewable energy sources might be a solution. • Hydrogen as energetic vector is considered. • HOMER is used to calculate the optimum performance of the system. A techno-economic assessment is conducted for a hybrid combined generation system based on renewable storage technologies such as those offered by fuel cells and using hydrogen as a fuel, which is considered to be a sustainable energy vector. The proposed system consists of three subsystems: a photovoltaic system, which generates electrical energy through solar energy; the system for the generation, consumption and storage of hydrogen, where an electrolyzer is available to obtain hydrogen from water; the fuel cell, which will generate electrical and heat energy and a hydrogen tank to store the hydrogen; and a thermal system, consisting of a Heat Recovery Steam System and an absorption chiller where the thermal energy from the heat cell will be used for the thermal load. The electrical energy generated by the fuel cell serves as a support for the solar energy when, for whatever reason, it cannot meet the demand. The economic assessment, performed using the Hybrid Optimization of Multiple Energy Resources (HOMER) software, shows that the net present cost of the optimized system is $1,006,293 and the cost of energy $0.8399/kWh. The research here presented proved that, although this system is not economically viable at present, it is technically possible.