Preliminary Design of a Self-Sufficient Electrical Storage System Based on Electrolytic Hydrogen for Power Supply in a Residential Application

The use of renewable energy and hydrogen technology is a sustainable solution for the intermittent feature of renewable energies. Hence, the aim of the present work is to design a self-sufficient system for a one-family house by coupling a solar photovoltaic array and an anion exchange membrane water electrolyzer (AEMWE). The first step is the selection of the photovoltaic panel by using PV-SYST 7.0 software. Then, the hydrogen production system is calculated by coupling the electrolyzer and photovoltaic panel current-potential curves. A fuel cell is selected to use the hydrogen produced when solar energy is not available. Finally, the hydrogen storage tank is also estimated to store hydrogen for a design basis of four consecutive cloudy days according to the hydrogen consumption of the fuel cell. The whole system is designed by a simple procedure for a specific location in Ciudad Real (Spain) for January, which is known as the coldest month of the year. The simple procedure described in this work could be used elsewhere and demonstrated that the hydrogen production at low scale is a suitable technology to use renewable energy for self-energy supporting in a residential application without any connection to the grid.

Automated summary

This study designed a self-sufficient system for a one-family house by coupling a solar photovoltaic array and an anion exchange membrane water electrolyzer, demonstrating that low-scale hydrogen production is a suitable technology for using renewable energy in residential applications without grid connection. The system also utilized hydrogen storage and fuel cells to address energy needs when solar energy is unavailable.