Modelling of the Utsira Wind/Hydrogen Demonstration System in Norway Arnaud Eté EWEC 2009 - Marseille

Plan for this Presentation Presentation of SgurrEnergy What is a wind/hydrogen energy system The modelling tool Presentation of the Utsira Project in Norway Results of the simulations Conclusions

Introducing SgurrEnergy Leading independent engineering consultancy International Based in Glasgow (Head Office), Vancouver, Beijing, Pune (India), Wexford & Paris Experienced Over 90 responsive engineers and consultants Professional ISO 9001 & 14001 certified OHSAS 18001 certified Award Winning SCDI Award for Outstanding Achievement in RE 2008 Glasgow Business Award for International Activity 2007 & Best Business Achievement 2007 at Green Energy Awards

Wind/H2 System: A Balancing Mechanism Hydrogen is an energy carrier, not an energy source! An electrolyser, a H2 storage and a fuel cell are used to store the excess electricity generated by wind turbines and produce electricity from hydrogen when needed

Wind/Hydrogen Systems Location Project Year ENEA Research Centre, Italy Prototype wind/electrolyzer testing system 2000 University of Quebec, Trois- Rivières, Canada Renewable energy systems based on hydrogen for remote applications 2001 Utsira Island, Norway Demonstration of autonomous wind/hydrogen systems for remote areas 2004 West Beacon Farm, Loughorough, UK HARI – Hydrogen And Renewables Integration Unst, Shetland Islands, UK PURE – Promoting Unst Renewable Energy 2005 IFE, Kjeller, Norway Development of a field-ready small-scale wind- hydrogen energy system 2006 NREL, Golden, Colorado, USA Wind-to-hydrogen (Wind2H2) demonstration project Pico Truncado, Argentina Wind/hydrogen demonstration plant 2007

Why We Should Use Modelling The hydrogen economy is often proposed as the means to solve both global warming and depletion of fossil fuel resources But technology still immature and performance needs to be improved to compete with conventional systems Computer modelling can help to optimise the system design and improve performance Modelling tool used: TRNSYS/ TRNSED

The Utsira Project in Norway

The Utsira Project Collaboration with the Institute for Energy Technology (IFE) and StatoilHydro in Norway Utsira is the first large-scale demonstration of a stand-alone renewable energy system where the energy balance is provided by stored hydrogen In operation since winter 2004/2005 Significant amount of operational data over the past 3 years

Objectives Utsira Project: Demonstrate how wind and hydrogen systems can provide safe and efficient power supply to communities in remote areas This study: Use operational data from the Utsira plant to calibrate a set of energy models suitable for simulations in TRNSYS Evaluate the techno-economic performance of the plant Identify improved system designs and find an optimal configuration

The Energy System at Utsira

Modelling of the System Use of one month of operational data (March 07) Calibration of the system components: Load profile and wind speed data Power curve of the wind turbine: Enercon E40 Hydrogen engine Electrolyser

Electrolyzer & H2 Engine Modelling

Improvement of the System Design The existing system cannot guarantee a 100% stand-alone operation for long periods of time

Optimisation of the Utsira System (1/4) Optimisation based on cost calculations: lower total net present cost for the project Component Lifetime (years) Capital costs O&M costs (% of capital costs) Wind turbine 20 800 €/kW 1.5 Electrolyser 2000 €/kW 2.0 Compressor 12 5000 €/kW H2 storage 4500 €/m³ 2.5 H2 engine 10 1000 €/kW Fuel cell 2500 €/kW

Optimisation of the Utsira System (2/4) Analysis using one year of operational data (Jan-Dec 05) Optimal system at Utsira : 100 kW electrolyser 50 kW hydrogen engine 11,100 Nm³ of H2 storage (70 m³ at 200b ) For a 100% stand-alone operation, the size of the electrolyser should be doubled and the H2 tank should be almost 5 times bigger!

Optimisation of the Utsira System (3/4) To obtain better performance and reduce the size of the system, the existing H2 engine is replaced by a more efficient fuel cell Optimal system at Utsira : 48 kW electrolyser 50 kW fuel cell 4800 Nm³ of H2 storage (30 m³ at 200b ) The efficiency of the power generating system and the size of the H2 tank should be doubled compared to the existing system

Optimisation of the Utsira System (4/4)

Conclusions (1) Techno-economic model of wind/hydrogen energy system built on the TRNSYS platform and user-friendly interface designed Models applied to the wind/hydrogen demonstration project on the Island of Utsira in Norway This study has shown that the system needs to be modified in order to achieve fully autonomous operation for long periods of time: Increase the size of the hydrogen storage Replace the hydrogen engine by a more efficient fuel cell

Conclusions (2) Further technical improvements and cost reductions are necessary before wind/H2 systems can compete with existing commercial solutions, for example wind/diesel hybrid systems Hybrid system solutions should be based on more than one energy source (e.g. wind, solar, bioenergy) to reduce the need for large and costly energy storage When only based on wind it is particularly important to choose a location with a steady wind resource

Thank you arnaud.ete@sgurrenergy.com 225 Bath Street G2 4GZ Glasgow, UK Tel: +44 (0)141 227 1700