Renewable energy systems based on hydrogen for remote applications

An integrated renewable energy (RE) system for powering remote communication stations and based on hydrogen is described. The system is based on the production of hydrogen by electrolysis whereby the electricity is generated by a 10 kW wind turbine (WT) and 1 kW photovoltaic (PV) array. When available, the excess power from the RE sources is used to produce and store hydrogen. When not enough energy is produced from the RE sources, the electricity is then regenerated from the stored hydrogen via a 5 kW proton exchange membrane fuel cell system. Overview results on the performances of the WT, PV, and fuel cells system are presented. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.