Optimization and Techno-Economic Analysis of Autonomous Photovoltaic/Fuel Cell Energy System

This paper introduces a method to unit sizing hy-brid Photovoltaic/Fuel Cell generation system for a typical domestic load that is not located near the elec-tric grid. In this configuration the combination of a battery, an electrolyser, and a hydrogen storage tank are used as the energy storage system. The aim of this design is finding the configuration, among a set of systems components, which meets the desired sys-tem reliability requirements, with the lowest value of levelized cost of energy over 20 years of operation. An energy based modelling has been developed using Matlab/Simulink to observe evolution of the system during a typical day, and the results are reported and discussed in the paper. An overall power management strategy is designed for the proposed system to man-age power flows among the different energy sources and the storage unit in the system. The results show that a system composed with a photovoltaic gener-ator, a fuel cell, an electrolyser and a battery can deliver energy in a stand-alone installation with an acceptable cost