Control and simulation of a stand-alone wind-hydrogen generation system

Abstract

The potential to produce hydrogen from renewable resources is of considerable interest due to fears over man-made climate change and resource depletion. Hydrogen produced from renewable resources can be used to generate electricity through a fuel cell, or for other uses in a hydrogen economy. There are a number of potential system configurations for hydrogen production from electrolysis including grid connected and stand alone. In remote locations, stand-alone configurations are of interest, and may prove more economically viable than grid connected systems. In this paper a standalone wind - hydrogen generation system is designed and proposed to take advantage of an electrolyser capable of operating at very low power levels. A dynamic model of the system is presented, along with a maximum power point (MPPT) control algorithm of the system. The potential yield of such a wind-hydrogen stand-alone system located at the University of Glamorgan’s Hydrogen Centre is investigated using wind speed data collected at the site and the performance of the system under variable wind conditions determined.