Techno-economic analysis of wind turbine-PEM (polymer electrolyte membrane) fuel cell hybrid system in standalone area

Providing reliable, environmentally friendly, and affordable energy has been a goal for many countries throughout the world. Hydrogen is presented as new energy sources during the last years which can be utilized instead of fossil fuel. One of the most promising clean methods of obtaining hydrogen is using renewable sources like wind and solar energy via electrolysis. In present work, a techno-economic evaluation of wind-hydrogen hybrid system (wind turbine, electrolysis, and PEM (polymer electrolyte membrane) fuel cell) in household size will be considered. In order to save the extra energy of wind turbine, electrolysis is used to convert this energy into hydrogen chemical energy. Generated hydrogen is stored in hydrogen storage tank. PEM fuel cell is applied to convert chemical energy of hydrogen into electrical power with high efficiency when extra power is required. Results show that wind energy in Manjil and Binaloud (two cities which have wind power plant in Iran) has greater wind speed in comparison with other cities. Also result shows that in standalone application, the size of wind turbine is bigger than the on-grid one to supply the full load consumption and it makes the standalone application too expensive. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.