Green hydrogen levelized cost assessment from wind energy in Argentina with dispatch constraints

Abstract

This study assesses the optimal levelized cost of hydrogen (LCOH) production from wind farms. The study investigates 84 locations in the south of Argentina with nodes spaced 100 km apart, as well as one location each in Chile, the USA, Spain, Japan, and Australia. A model is presented to optimize the design of the wind farm, electrolyzer plant, compressor station, and storage capacity (gaseous 160 bar), with different hydrogen demands (hydrogen dispatch constraints) and minimizing the LCOH. Hourly data for wind resources from NASA is used to define a characteristic year. The model involves energy and mass balances in hourly basis for the whole year. Sequential solution procedures with heuristic rules are implemented. The optimal costs and their relation to the main variables, as well as production and storage, are analyzed. By imposing dispatch constraints, increase in levelized cost ranges from 25 % to 40 %, and decrease in annual hydrogen production ranges from 5 % to 30 %. Best levelized cost without considering electric transport between wind farm and electrolyzer plant is 2700 USD/t.