Feasibility Study of Sustainable Energy Alternatives to Power Remote Communities in Northern Ontario

Remote communities in the North of Ontario survive in isolation as their distance to the southern industrial and electrical sector of the province limits their accessibility to the major southern grid. The lack of grid connection has led to antiquated methods of power generation, which pollute the environment and deplete the planet of its natural resources. One solution to these problems is the storage of electricity as hydrogen gas through electrolysis. This work determined the feasibility of introducing clean energy alternatives and provided a fuel blend option consisting of solar, wind, and hydrogen energy sources. To determine a fuel blend for Northern communities, an exergy analysis and an analysis of emissions of CO2 from the production of raw feed material in the construction of the energy systems is performed. When comparing the hydrogen fuel cell alone, exergy efficiency and emissions were more preferable than wind and solar. Although, when electrolysis and transportation emissions of the fuel cell were considered, the fuel cell became a less preferable alternative. The implementation of a fuel cell energy source would require the construction of a hydrogen generation infrastructure to allow for hydrogen production from the southern grid system and provide flexibility to the grid