L R AS Published on Sunday 11 February 2024 - n° 475 - Categories:hydrogen
Hydrogen production by electrolysis of water is still too marginal
The production of hydrogen by electrolysis of water is still not sufficiently achieved using solar energy. Projects are still too few and too far between to measure the performance of solar energy as a source of power for electrolysers. We have to wait until they are up and running and producing. One of the reasons for this is the intermittent and uncontrollable nature of solar energy.
because an electrolyser can't stand standstills. To be profitable, it needs to run continuously". It would be necessary to resort to storage, but this would increase the cost of production and nobody has yet mastered the subject. Only H2Gremm, which is developing an energy self-consumption solution for buildings using photovoltaic-hydrogen coupling in Finistère, has indicated the cost per kilogram of hydrogen from a 10 kW PV power plant. Taking into account storage and maintenance, it comes to a cost of €6.85. That's still a long way from the €3 per kilogram that makes the product profitable. And this price does not take into account the cost of transport and the distributor's margin.
So we're still in the infancy of hydrogen.
According to data from the French Energy Transition Agency, available free of charge, the carbon footprint of hydrogen production (2.58 eq.CO2eq/kgH2) is still 4 to 5 times higher than that of wind power (0.700 CO2eq/kgH2) or hydroelectric power (0.450CO2eq/kgH2)...
PV Magazine of 9 February 2024
