Abstract

The energy carrier hydrogen has a great advantage over other electricity storing techniques on the market: the ability to store electricity long-term without any geographical needs. Though todays techniques available are of low efficiency, the interests for them are high. Hydrogen gas is versatile, and with future developments it is possibly to make great economical profit from having a hydrogen storage. This master thesis project is evaluating the possible profitability that can be made when connecting a hydrogen system to a wind farm located in SE1 .

The system contains of production, storage and cold combustion of hydrogen with one main purpose: to produce hydrogen through electrolysis when the electricity prices are low and convert the gas back to electricity to sell when the prices are high. Four different simulations are made with a mixture of incomes: using the variety in the electricity price over a year, selling the by-products from the hydrogen system and selling pure hydrogen gas.

The different simulations are mainly compared through three values: LCOH, EBIT and return. The results show that the LCOH -cost per produced kilo hydrogen- for all simulations are higher than other compared production methods; even higher than the price per sold kilo hydrogen. EBIT -earnings per year- show that selling pure hydrogen gas makes a major difference on the yearly profit, from (the lowest result) -52217 SEK to (the highest result) 4853306 SEK. Even though EBIT show a positive result for some of the simulations, the return on the investment is negative which makes the investment non-profitable. In a sensitivity analysis with three variables, is the one who makes the biggest difference on the return value the cost of the hydrogen storage. Lowering that cost enough would make the investment profitable.