A Techno-Economic Analysis of Various Grid-Connected Photovoltaic System Configurations for Green Hydrogen Production

Annual solar photovoltaic (PV) installations will reach 162 GW by 2022, over 50% more than the pre-pandemic level of 2019 [1]. This tremendous increase in PV system integration is mainly due to the reduced system component costs, attractive incentives, subsidies, and feed-in-tariff (FiT) rates offered by governments worldwide. However, although historical trends are not always indicative of future situations, the analysis from Gilmore J. et al., [2] shows the solar industry's long-term concerns regarding costs are not declining swiftly enough to ensure sustained reliability. Green Hydrogen has been gaining wider interest throughout the years due to its numerous qualities and unlimited potential namely as a clean and efficient energy carrier. However, producing Hydrogen can be a costly process both technically and economically. As such, its production relies majorly on fossil fuels. This led to the introduction of green Hydrogen production via renewable energy resources, such as photovoltaics (PV), by electrolyzing the Hydrogen [3]. The electrolysis process produces green Hydrogen with zero carbon footprint, making it the most efficient method of production [4]. From the economic per-spective, producing Hydrogen is still a relatively expensive process, as it depends on different factors related to the PV and the electrolyzer such as the PV module cost, the electrolyzer stack cost, the balance of plant (BOP), the balance of system (BOS), in addition to the cost of operation and maintenance (O&M), among others [5]. Therefore, the type of PV has a major impact on the LCOH. In fact, the efficiency of the PV is one of the most influential factors on the LCOH as well. Gallardo et al. [6] concluded that some country-specific characteristics such as capital expenditures and electricity prices significantly impact the LCOH. Therefore, the LCOH is lower in areas with higher levels of solar radiation and vice-versa. Sevik [7] evaluated the economic impact of a hybrid PV-trigeneration-hydrogen on electricity and Hydrogen production in a university campus in Turkey, and concluded that a higher efficiency eventually resulted in lower production costs, with the lowest LCOE and LCOH values recorded when 100% of the grid power is used. Consequently, and depending on the operating hours, the resulting LCOE and LCOH ranged between $0.068lkWh and $0.073lkWh, and between $1.78/kg and $3.4/kg, respectively.