Scientists have investigated different techno-economic scenarios for the use of hydrogen storage in combination with hydropower and pumped hydropower storage in Switzerland. They have discovered that hydrogen storage does not play a major role under most circumstances.
A research group from the Swiss ETH Zurich has investigated the role of hydrogen storage in an electricity system with large hydropower sources such as that of Switzerland.
“The study moves towards understanding when hydrogen could play a role in the combination with hydropower and pumped hydropower, or more generally within the same market,” said corresponding author Professor Paolo Gabrielli. pv magazine. “This could happen in certain scenarios.”
Switzerland currently has approximately 6.9 TWh of hydroelectric dams and 2.1 TWh of pumped hydroelectric power stations under construction or under construction. The country’s electricity system – including energy transfer with neighboring countries Germany, France, Italy and Austria – was simulated using the Nexus-e platform and optimized with a linear programming (LP) optimization model.
Using software simulation and optimization, the research team focused on the Swiss electricity sector as a case study. However, they say it should provide general design guidelines and recommendations in similar environments
The academics evaluated the need for hydrogen storage under a number of techno-economic and climate scenarios with changing variables. The analysis was carried out for a number of target years: 2020, 2030, 2040 and 2050, with their respective development and demand scenarios. PV generation was estimated at 6.76 TWh in 2030, 19.56 TWh in 2040 and 31.66 TWh in 2050.
The meteorological year was set as dry, wet or humid, and disconnection costs ranged from €1,000 ($1,080)/MWh to €10,000/MWh. In addition, three scenarios were considered for the development of Switzerland’s neighbors as defined by the Ten-Year Network Development Plans (TYNDP): national trends, global ambition and distributed energy scenarios.
Furthermore, the learning rate for hydrogen technologies was set at 5%, 12% or 20%, and the net transfer capacity (NTC) ranged from 0% to 100%. An NTC of 100% corresponds to current values, while an NTC of 0% corresponds to a self-sufficient Switzerland.
“In addition, the following candidate generators are included in the scenarios as options for new investments,” the scientists explain. “i) waste-to-energy plants: 12 units of 20 MW each; (ii) wind farms at 7 locations for a total of 1960 MW; (iii) batteries at 7 locations with a capacity of 100 MW/400 MWh each; (iv) combined cycle gas plants combined with carbon capture and storage (CCS): 28 units (at 7 locations) of 100 or 200 MW each for a total of 4200 MW; (v) hydrogen storage: 169 units, one at each considered node, including the non-Swiss regions. The power used for the electrolysis of water can be generated by any of the electricity generating units.”
All different scenarios were analyzed by changing a single variable, while all other settings for the scenario were determined by a reference scenario. In that reference scenario, the target year was set at 2050, the learning rate at 20% and the NTC at 100%. The disconnection costs were then set at €10,000/MWh, the annual meteorological average and the European development towards global ambition.
“In the Swiss electricity sector, hydrogen storage does not play a major role under most circumstances, even if favorable cost assumptions for hydrogen technologies are assumed,” the researchers emphasized. “More specifically, hydrogen storage will not be installed in Switzerland if there are reasonable energy interconnections with neighboring countries. This is true even if we take into account dry years, when the natural inflow of water is scarce and the contribution of the Swiss hydropower sector is smaller.”
However, the results also showed that hydrogen storage is installed when net transfer capacity between countries is reduced to less than 30% of current values and load shedding costs exceed €1,000/MWh. “In other words: hydrogen storage is a solution to guarantee self-sufficiency in a context where electricity exchange with neighboring countries is not possible. However, this comes at the expense of very high electricity prices,” they emphasized.
Their results were presented in the article “The role of hydrogen storage in an electricity system with large hydropower sources”, published in the Journal of Energy Conversion and Management.
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