Characteristics of hydrogen generation from water splitting by polymer electrolyte electrochemical cell directly connected with concentrated photovoltaic cell

Energy storage is a key technology for establishing a stand-alone renewable energy system. Current energy-storage technologies are, however, not suitable for such an energy system because the technologies are cost ineffective and achieve low energy-conversion efficiency. The most realistic and expected technology is hydrogen generation from water splitting by an electrochemical cell directly connected with photovoltaic cell. In this study, a simple concept is proposed for generating hydrogen from water splitting by using a direct-electrically-connected polymer electrolyte electrochemical cell and a separately-located concentrated photovoltaic cell, named a concentrated photovoltaic electrochemical cell (CPEC). The CPEC operates stably and achieves relatively high-energy conversion efficiency from light to hydrogen of over 12%. The conditions are comparison with those of the electrochemical cell connected with a polycrystalline Si solar cell. Copyright (C) 2013, Hydrogen Energy Publications, LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.