A techno-economic perspective on solar-to-hydrogen concepts through 2025

Grube, Thomas; Reul, Julian; Reuß, Markus; Calnan, Sonya; Monnerie, Nathalie; Schlatmann, Rutger; Sattler, Christian; Robinius, Martin; Stolten, Detlef

doi:10.1039/d0se00896f

Cited by 37 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…In the literature, various techno-economic studies of hydrogen production from solar energy can be found. [6][7][8][9][10][11][12] Broadly speaking, they can be classified into three categories:…”

Section: Main Textmentioning

confidence: 99%

How much technological progress is needed to make solar hydrogen cost-competitive?

Schneidewind

2022

Preprint

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Cost-effective production of green hydrogen is a major challenge for global adoption of a hydrogen economy. Technologies such as photoelectrochemical (PEC) or photocatalytic (PC) water splitting and photovoltaic + electrolysis (PV+E) allow for sustainable hydrogen production from sunlight and water, but are not yet competitive with fossil fuel-derived hydrogen. Herein, open-source software for techno-economic analysis (pyH2A) along with a Monte Carlo-based methodology for modelling of technological progress are developed. Together, these tools allow for the study of required technological improvement to reach a competitive target cost. They are applied to PEC, PC and PV+E to identify required progress for each and derive actionable research targets. For PEC, it is found that cell lifetime improvements (> 2 years) and operation under high solar concentration (> 50-fold) are crucial, necessitating systems with high space-time yields. In case of PC, solar-to-hydrogen efficiency has to reach at least 6% and lowering catalyst concentration (< 0.2 g/L) by improving absorption properties is identified as a promising path to low-cost hydrogen. PV+E requires ca. 2 or 3-fold capital cost reductions for photovoltaic and electrolyzer components. We hope that these insights can inform materials research efforts to improve these technologies in the most impactful ways.

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Section: Main Textmentioning

confidence: 99%

How much technological progress is needed to make solar hydrogen cost-competitive?

Schneidewind

2022

Preprint

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“…In addition, this approach was chosen because it is technically feasible in temperate climates unlike concentrated PV or solar thermal hydrogen production and has potentially lower costs. [ 18 ] Further, designs with and without thermal integration of the PV and electrolysis components were investigated, with the former representing a lower technology readiness level (TRL) than the latter.…”

Section: Background Of the Pecsys Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

Development of Various Photovoltaic‐Driven Water Electrolysis Technologies for Green Solar Hydrogen Generation

et al. 2021

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Direct solar hydrogen generation via a combination of photovoltaics (PV) and water electrolysis can potentially ensure a sustainable energy supply while minimizing greenhouse emissions. The PECSYS project aims at demonstrating a solar‐driven electrochemical hydrogen generation system with an area >10 m2 with high efficiency and at reasonable cost. Thermally integrated PV electrolyzers (ECs) using thin‐film silicon, undoped, and silver‐doped Cu(In,Ga)Se2 and silicon heterojunction PV combined with alkaline electrolysis to form one unit are developed on a prototype level with solar collection areas in the range from 64 to 2600 cm2 with the solar‐to‐hydrogen (StH) efficiency ranging from ≈4 to 13%. Electrical direct coupling of PV modules to a proton exchange membrane EC to test the effects of bifaciality (730 cm2 solar collection area) and to study the long‐term operation under outdoor conditions (10 m2 collection area) is also investigated. In both cases, StH efficiencies exceeding 10% can be maintained over the test periods used. All the StH efficiencies reported are based on measured gas outflow using mass flow meters.

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“…CSP will most likely play a significant role, together with solar PV, wind and bioresources, for power generation and "green" hydrogen production (Grube et al, 2020). CSP could offset its inherently larger capital costs thanks to its much smaller requirements for critical raw materials, especially when energy storage is implemented (Valero et al, 2018), and thanks to efficient heat and/or power generation.…”

Section: Outlook Of Solar-driven Fluidized Bed Technologies and Open Issuesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fluidized Beds for Concentrated Solar Thermal Technologies—A Review

et al. 2021

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Thermal and thermochemical processes can be efficiently developed and carried out in fluidized beds, due to the unique properties of fluidized suspensions of solid particles and to the inherent flexibility of fluidized bed design and operation. Coupling fluidization with concentrated solar power is a stimulating cross-disciplinary field of investigation, with the related issues and opportunities to explore. In this review article the current and perspective applications of fluidized beds to collection, storage and exploitation of solar radiation are surveyed. Novel and “creative” designs of fluidized bed solar receivers/reactors are reported and critically discussed. The vast field of applications of solar-driven fluidized bed processes, from energy conversion with thermal energy storage, to solids looping for thermochemical energy storage, production of fuels, chemicals and materials, is explored with an eye at past and current developments and an outlook of future perspectives.

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A techno-economic perspective on solar-to-hydrogen concepts through 2025

Abstract: With this comparative study, we present an advanced approach to the techno-economic assessment of solar-based hydrogen production.

Cited by 37 publications

References 44 publications

How much technological progress is needed to make solar hydrogen cost-competitive?

How much technological progress is needed to make solar hydrogen cost-competitive?

Development of Various Photovoltaic‐Driven Water Electrolysis Technologies for Green Solar Hydrogen Generation

Fluidized Beds for Concentrated Solar Thermal Technologies—A Review

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