HYBPLANT- Integrated design and operation of hybrid renewable energy plants for large-scale green hydrogen generation and minimal LCOH

The implementation of regulatory measures, which promote the consumption of hydrogen (H2) and facilitate the investment on H2 infrastructure is foreseeable, supporting renewable hydrogen production technologies in becoming competitive at industrial level in the forthcoming years. By then it will be necessary to resolve the integration of the different elements connected in such facilities in order to guarantee the system’s stability and to economically optimize the installation from the OPEX and CAPEX point of view. To that aim, the design and development of hybrid renewable energy plants with the integration of green hydrogen generation will become an important milestone at sector level, positioning these new “energy systems” as reliable, stable and flexible solutions to guarantee the national and global energy security.

The HYBPLANT project will demonstrate the value of the combination of renewable energy assets with auxiliary battery systems and electrolyzers for the hydrogen production, resolving the integration of the plant in different grid connection scenarios, developing specific components for off-grid installations and strategies for their optimal exploitation (minimizing the LCOH by increasing the energy/H2 production and reducing the Balance of Plant (BOP) cost).

The correct management and coordination of the different components of hybrid renewable plants for the generation of H2 strongly depends on weather prediction models due to the slow dynamics of electrolyzers and the temporal variability of the renewable resource. In this regard, CENER is a strategic partner developing methods for the combined estimation of the available solar and wind resource, as well as high frequency and granularity (1-5 min) estimation models of the power output in order to foresee the dynamics of the electrolyzer’s power consumption. Additionally, CENER will develop sensors for the nowcasting of the solar resource and photovoltaic (PV) production. This forecasting system could be commercialized by CENER to PV and/or hybrid plants both in operation (to improve their operation) and newly created.