Evaluation of a 5 kW(P) photovoltaic hydrogen production and storage installation for a residential home in Switzerland

The performance of a privately owned photovoltaic (PV) hydrogen production and storage installation in a one-family house at Zollbruck i. E. in Switze rland (altitude 630 m, latitude 46.9 degrees N) has been studied. The manua lly controlled system has operated since 1991 and was built by its owner (M . Markus Friedli) mainly from commercial components. It consists of an arra y of roof mounted PV solar panels (65 m(2) surface, 5 kW, average peak powe r, 8.4% average efficiency), a DC-DC converter (95% efficiency), an alkalin e membrane electrolyzer (5 kW, 62% average electrolyzer efficiency), a hydr ogen purification unit, a compressor, and two metal hydride storage tanks, a fixed one (capacity: 15 Nm(3)) for in-house storage to operate household appliances running on hydrogen such as a stove and a laundry machine, and a mobile one (capacity 16 Nm(3)) for running a hydrogen operated minibus. In -situ measurements during operation on three typical summer days and comput er modeling based on standard meteorological data suggest a yearly hydrogen production of 1100 Nm(3) (16 Nm(3)/m(2) year), corresponding to an average efficiency of 3.6% for converting solar energy into hydrogen fuel for seas onal energy storage. (C) 1999 International Association for Hydrogen Energy . Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.