A Sizing and Techno-Economic Analysis for Local Hybrid Microgrid

Concerns about climate change and global warming are increasing, and it seems that hydrogen will be one of the keys as a potential energy carrier in energy systems. In this paper, a techno-economic analysis has been carried out for a small-scale hybrid microgrid powered exclusively by renewable energy sources (RES) and operating continuously without CO
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emissions. The goal is to produce green hydrogen using electrolysis technology powered by solar and wind energy. When surplus electricity is available, it is used to charge the batteries and/or power electrolyzers to produce hydrogen, which will be stored in a tank. The hydrogen will then be converted to electrical energy using fuel cell (FC) technology when solar energy is insufficient to meet electricity needs, ensuring continuous supply to meet long-term autonomy requirements. The sizing of the photovoltaic (PV) cells, batteries, electrolyzers, FC and hydrogen tank have been studied with the objective of obtaining a fully autonomous hybrid microgrid. Using HOMER software, five different scenarios have been tested considering various storage components. The optimal solution is a system with batteries and a high-pressure hydrogen tank in the form of a bundle containing 12 gas bottles that includes electrically driven compressor (300 bar).