Wind power with hydrogen production, storage, and reconversion as flexible baseload in the Nordic energy system

Abstract

This thesis aims to investigate the techno-economical feasibility of an offshore wind farm, combined with hydrogen production, storage, and reconversion as a Green Flexible Baseload in southern Sweden in 2030. In the future, it is expected that the share of variable renewable energies (VRE) will increase considerably in Europe, including Sweden and thus, there is a need for balancing technologies in such an energy system with high penetration of VREs. To investigate a concept including hydrogen production, storage, and reconversion in order to balance the inherent variations from wind power, a linear optimization model was developed to find the optimal design of the plant which maximizes the profit by considering the investment and operation of the plant. The work is focused on maximizing the profit made by such a power plant. The hourly operation of the different components is evaluated for a five-year period with real weather data and predicted electricity prices. An inter-year comparison of the designs is then carried out to analyze the effects of wind variations on installed capacity suggestions. The results show that there are multiple profitable design options for the power plant with different designs of the reconversion technology capacity. One of the main drivers for the overall profitability of the green flexible baseload is the price of hydrogen supplied directly to an assumed industrial demand. Two final designs are suggested according to the obtained profitability and oper ational quality results. The proposed designs correspond to the combinations of minimum baseload of 10% in summer to 20% in winter (variable baseload) and min imum baseload of 15% in summer to 15% in winter (constant baseload), both with a grid connection of 72% of the total wind farm capacity.