TY - JOUR
T1 - Demonstration of green hydrogen production using solar energy at 28% efficiency and evaluation of its economic viability
AU - Khan, M. A.
AU - Al-Shankiti, I.
AU - Ziani, Ahmed
AU - Idriss, Hicham
N1 - KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2021-02-09
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - The solar to hydrogen (STH) efficiency of photovoltaic-electrolysis (PV-E) setups is a key parameter to lower
the cost of green hydrogen produced. Commercial c-Si solar cells have neared saturation with respect to
their efficiency, which warrants the need to look at alternative technologies. In this work, we report
a concentrator photovoltaic-electrolysis (CPV-E) setup with a STH efficiency of 28% at 41 suns (without
the use of Fresnel lenses), the highest reported efficiency using an alkaline system to date. Using this as
a base case, we carried out a detailed techno-economic (TEA) analysis, which showed that despite the
high cost associated with CPV cells, the levelized cost of hydrogen (LCOH) is at $5.9 kg 1
, close to that
from c-Si solar farms ($4.9 kg 1
), primarily due to the high STH efficiency. We also report sensitivity
analysis of factors affecting both CPV and alkaline electrolyser systems such as the CPV module
efficiency and installed capacity, electrolyser stack lifetime, operating current density, and working hours.
Our results indicate that in a scenario where the installed capacity of CPV technology matches that of
silicon and with an electrolyser operating current density of 0.7 A cm 2
, the LCOH from CPVelectrolysis systems can be
AB - The solar to hydrogen (STH) efficiency of photovoltaic-electrolysis (PV-E) setups is a key parameter to lower
the cost of green hydrogen produced. Commercial c-Si solar cells have neared saturation with respect to
their efficiency, which warrants the need to look at alternative technologies. In this work, we report
a concentrator photovoltaic-electrolysis (CPV-E) setup with a STH efficiency of 28% at 41 suns (without
the use of Fresnel lenses), the highest reported efficiency using an alkaline system to date. Using this as
a base case, we carried out a detailed techno-economic (TEA) analysis, which showed that despite the
high cost associated with CPV cells, the levelized cost of hydrogen (LCOH) is at $5.9 kg 1
, close to that
from c-Si solar farms ($4.9 kg 1
), primarily due to the high STH efficiency. We also report sensitivity
analysis of factors affecting both CPV and alkaline electrolyser systems such as the CPV module
efficiency and installed capacity, electrolyser stack lifetime, operating current density, and working hours.
Our results indicate that in a scenario where the installed capacity of CPV technology matches that of
silicon and with an electrolyser operating current density of 0.7 A cm 2
, the LCOH from CPVelectrolysis systems can be
UR - http://hdl.handle.net/10754/667263
UR - http://xlink.rsc.org/?DOI=D0SE01761B
U2 - 10.1039/d0se01761b
DO - 10.1039/d0se01761b
M3 - Article
SN - 2398-4902
JO - Sustainable Energy & Fuels
JF - Sustainable Energy & Fuels
ER -
