| Abstract |
In 2020, the European Commission (EC) announced a hydrogen strategy consistent with the principles of the European Green Deal. The strategy assumes limiting the use of fossil fuels for energy production and replacing them with renewable energy (RES) produced mainly by wind and solar farms. The power of launched photovoltaic (PV) installations in Poland in November 2021 reached a total value of 7.1 GW. Currently, the largest photovoltaic power plant in Poland is the one built by ZE PAK in Brudzewo with a capacity of 70 MW. Surplus energy from RES could be used to produce "green" hydrogen. This publication presents the results of the analysis aimed at determining the estimated costs of hydrogen production by an electrolyser powered by energy from a photovoltaic (PV) farm. In the conducted analysis, it was assumed that hydrogen will be produced by the PEM electrolyser with a capacity of 2.5 MW. Since the amount of produced energy varies with time, the amount of produced hydrogen was calculated for installations with a capacity of 7-11 MW. The minimum installation size was selected so as to allow the electrolyser to operate at full capacity in June (the best month for photovoltaics in Poland). On the other hand, the upper power range of the installation, amounting to 11 MW, was defined in such a way so as to allow the electrolyser to operate at maximum power from March to October. Calculations have shown that the 7 MW installation will produce approximately 1.34 million m(n)(3) of hydrogen, while an 11 MW plant can produce about 1.7 million m(n)(3) of hydrogen. Subsequently, the investment outlays were calculated for all variants of building a photovoltaic installation. The cost of building the installation with a capacity of 7-11 MW varied in the range of PLN 34.4-44.7 million. On the other hand, the annual operating costs for the operation of installations with a capacity of 7-11 MW varied in the range of PLN 1.19-1.4 million. Subsequently, the cost of producing 1 m(n)(3) of hydrogen was calculated, assuming the operation of the entire installation for 20 years. The cost of producing 1 m(n)(3) of hydrogen was obtained by dividing the sum of discounted investment and operating costs obtained over a period of 20 years by the sum of the discounted amount of produced hydrogen. The calculations showed that the optimal size of the PV installation for a 2.5 MW electrolyser has a capacity of 9 MW The cost of hydrogen production, calculated for a 9 MW PV installation, was PLN 3.17 m(n)(3). |