STAND ALONE POWER SYSTEM COUPLING A PV FIELD AND A FUEL CELL

DESCRIPTION OF THE SELECTED SYSTEM AND ADVANTAGES

Séverine BUSQUET, Francis DOMAIN, Rudolf METKEMEIJER, Didier MAYER

Ecole des Mines de Paris – Centre d’Energétique
Rue Claude Daunesse
Les Lucioles – BP 207
F-06904 SOPHIA ANTIPOLIS

ABSTRACT: The purpose of the work, through the PVFC-SYS project, is to optimise the operation of the system coupling a
photovoltaic field, an electrolyser, a gas storage, a fuel cell and a power management unit using the cutting-edge technology
materials. Such a hybrid system is intended to be an environmentally friendly solution, to maximise the use of the renewable
energy production and in a near future to decrease the current level of investment and running costs.
A test bench is actually finalised in the Laboratory. All components have been selected for an optimal, automatic, safe and
reliable operation of the complete system. Fully instrumented, this test bench furnishes new data concerning each component
and the complete system behaviour for variable real weather conditions and different load demands.
The paper will present the complete description of the built PV-FC system. It will point out the most important advantages
and the competitive forecasted prices of that kind of systems.
Keywords: Photovoltaic, Electrolyser, Fuel Cell

1 INTRODUCTION simulation and energy management, necessary to allow

Hybrid systems based on the synergy between
renewable energy sources and conventional energy
systems (mostly Photovoltaic/diesel systems) are known
to be a reliable solution for the electricity supply of
remote sites. Nevertheless, such a solution is not yet the
ideal one, as the use of a conventional system induces
emissions of both exhaust gases and noise that have to be
drastically reduced when looking for environmentally
friendly solutions.
The purpose of the work, through the PV-FC-SYS
project, is to optimise the operation of the following
solution:
- Replacement of the conventional system by a Proton
Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC), keeping
the system reliability of supply at the same level
while decreasing the environmental impact of the
whole system.
- Introduction of an electrolyser, powered by the
Photovoltaic (PV) generator, to produce the fuel for
the PEMFC.
- Gas (H2 and O2) storage that can be sized for seasonal
operation thus increasing the performance ratio of the
renewable production.
- No battery for energy storage, avoiding the presence
of a component, which still remains the weakest point
of PV systems.
Such a hybrid system is intended to maximise the use
of the renewable energy production and in a near future
to decrease the current level of investment and running
costs (a decrease by 10 to 100 is expected for PEM fuel
cells within less than 10 years with forecasted costs down
to 100 Euros/kW).
Gas storage capacity, for both short and long term, is
analysed in term of its influence on the optimal use of the
solar energy. The use of the stored H2 and O2 is meant to
increase the system efficiency when compared with
system using O2 from compressed air.
Such a system can be also used for cogeneration. The
heat balances will be calculated and the heat production
for domestic purposes will be evaluated.
A prototype has been built at the CENERG in Sophia
Antipolis (France). The test bench is used to assist the
development of all the tools dealing with modelling,
an optimal design of pilot systems adapted to remote
sites.
Moreover, a pilot plant is currently being installed at
the Agrate site (Italy) of ST Microelectronics in an
industrial environment. The aim of the PV-FC SYS
European project is to develop and study these two
plants. The partners are ARMINES (F), Transenergie (F),
Vandenborre Technologies (B), Trivea (L), ST
Microelectronics (I) and Iset (D). A French project with
ADEME, Transenergie, ARMINES and Ainelec helps for
the PMU development.
Due to the delay of the final step of the test bench
realisation, experimental results cannot be presented yet.
This paper presents the precise description of the selected
PV-FC prototype. Then, we will see the numerous
advantages of the coupling between a PV field and an
electrolyser to store electricity in a gas form. Finally, the
forecasted costs of those PV-FC systems will be
estimated. To conclude, we sum up the different
progresses that will help to develop those
environmentally friendly systems.
2 DESCRIPTION OF THE SYSTEM
The system is made up of a 3,6 kWp photovoltaic
field (PV), a 4 kW Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell
(FC), a 12 kWh gas storage, a 3,6 kW alkaline
electrolyser (EL), a small security battery and a Power
Management Unit (PMU). The Figure 1 shows the PV-
FC system installed on the roof of the laboratory at
Sophia Antipolis.
2.1 General operating
The PV field supplies the load. Excess electricity is
fed to the electrolyser producing hydrogen and oxygen at
a pressure of maximum 10 Bars. Gases are stored without
compression for short or long term. In case of renewable
energy deficiency, the fuel cell is switched on to meet the
load. A small battery is added to safely stop the
electrochemical components. If necessary, it can also
help the system during transient steps when fast load
variation occurs. But, it is never used as an energy
storage.
 The Power Management Unit (PMU) is in charge of
the conversion and the dispatching of the energy between
each component. It may be considered as a component of
the system, on which all other components are connected.
Battery
PV Field
PMU
Load
H2O
O2
Fuel Cell H2 Electrolyser
Figure 1: The PV-FC system in place at Sophia
Antipolis(F) (dotted arrows: electrical connections; full
arrows: H2, O2 and H2O transfers)
2.2 Components
§ The PV field (PV) is constituted with 36 modules of
100 W from Photowatt (F). There are 6 sub arrays
connected in parallel of 6 modules in series. The voltage
and current of the field are 210 V and 17A at nominal
conditions.
§ The electrolyser (EL) is an alkaline one from Hydrogen
Systems (B), constituted by 16 cells of 300 cm2 in series.
The nominal operating point is 120 A and 24 V at 80°C
with a gas production efficiency of 85% (to be proved).
Due to the oversize of the proposed periphery, the actual
periphery has been totally adapted to the application. The
size is smaller than the commercial product and the
control of the gas production is realised by a
microprocessor, which is also used for the control of the
fuel cell and the storage. The produced gases are drained
off the periphery by the way of electro valves. The
electrolyte (KOH 30%w.) circulates naturally in the
process.
§ The gas and water storage (ST) is directly connected
to the 2 electrochemical components. Naturally evacuated
out of the fuel cell periphery, the pure water is stored in a
vessel and then provided to the electrolyser via a
membrane pump. The storable capacity is 3 litres. The 12
kWh gas storage is constituted of 8 bottles (8*50 Litres)
for the hydrogen part and 4 bottles for the oxygen one.
§ The fuel cell (FC) is a Proton Exchange Membrane
Fuel Cell from De Nora, containing 18 cells of 900 cm2
in series. The nominal operating conditions are 350 A for
11,4 V at an efficiency of 50%. The periphery has been
especially designed to allow an adapted safe operation of
the device consuming pure hydrogen and pure oxygen
[1]. The process needs 2 pumps: one circulates the water
and one allows the gas recirculation in the FC and its
auxiliary.
These 3 previous parts constitutes the hydraulical part of
the system (circled at the bottom of the Figure 1). This
part, which is in fact the storage compared to a battery, is
entirely closed and controlled by a unique
microprocessor. All materials produced by the
electrolyser are stored and then consumed by the fuel
cell, and vice versa. There should be no material losses
and thus no water consumption.
§ The batteries are only used to safely stop the system
and may help the system to most quickly provide the
variable load demand. There are 2 batteries (12 V – 80
Ah - C15) connected in series. The need of battery will
be particularly studied with the test bench in order to
remove it or replace it by a capacitor.
§ The Power Management Unit (PMU) has been
realised by Ainelec (F). It is constituted by 4 DC/DC and
1 DC/AC converters relying on the same 300 V DC Bus.
The energy managent is realised by the way of a
programmable microprocessor. The program has been
made by the furnisher following our precise
specifications (see summary part 2.1).
§ The load (LD) is a piloted resistive load, made up of 10
lamps of 500 W (230VAC). An analogical signal allows
the variation of the load to simulate different realistic
loads.
§ The data acquisition unit allows recording all data
necessary to analyse the system performance and to
develop a simulation model.
Conclusions:
The installed PV-FC system has been designed to
operate automatically and safely. All components have
been optimised to meet the best system performances. All
components have been tested and show a perfect
operation. Now, the last stage is currently in progress: the
connection of all components to the PMU.
Different points will be particularly studied during
the next experiments: the water consumption of the
system, the intrinsic electrical consumption of the system
which has to be evaluated and minimised, the necessary
energy provided by the batteries for the actual system.
3 ADVANTAGES OF THE PV-EL COUPLING
3.1 High energy conversion
The first advantage is to convert renewable electricity
in chemical form at high conversion efficiency.
The electrolysis efficiency is about 85%, based on the
High Heating Value (HHV). The gas production
efficiency, named Faraday efficiency, increases with the
current density and hardly with the EL temperature [2].
Depending on the electrical connection between the PV
field and the electrolyser, the adding loss is about 10%.
The overall energy conversion is thus 75% from the
renewable production through the gas storage.
Nevertheless, there are no losses due to a compressor.
Indeed, the electrolyser is able to produce pressurized
pure gases. At present, the commercial electrolyser
pressure is only 10-25 Bars (Hydrogen Systems: 10Bars
or 25 Bars, Proton energy Systems: 14 Bars). But, in the
near future, that pressure should increase up to 120 Bars
(Forschungszentrum Julich).
Finally, when the energy is stored in gas storage,
there is no loss, in time.
The PV-EL coupling allows a conversion of
renewable electricity at high efficiency in a time-stable
energy form.
Oxygen may also be stored as hydrogen. Storing the 2
pure produced gases should allow to increase the fuel cell
performance (to be proved) [1] and to limit water losses
of systems.
3.2 Environmentally friendly solution
The electrolyser consumes pure water, largely present
on the earth.
In case of fuel cell electricity regeneration, the
exhaust product is pure water, which can supply the
electrolyser. If oxygen, hydrogen and pure water are
stored, the hydraulic system is closed (maybe few small
hydraulic leaks). Although electrochemical reactions are
not 100% efficient, losses are only electrical or thermal.
There is no material loss. Therefore, the PV-FC system
should consume only exceptionally nitrogen in case of
emergency stop of the 2 electrochemical devices
(purging).
In term of noise, although the electrolyser and fuel
cell need motors (only for the FC) and electro valves,
noise is very low compared to a diesel generator.
3.3 Complete autonomy of hybrid system
In classical hybrid systems, renewable energy is
stored in batteries. The batteries capacity corresponds to
less than one-week of system autonomy (usually, 3-5
days), due to the dimensions and the weight of batteries
but also to the bad use of the batteries in case of too large
storage capacity. The complete autonomy is realized with
a diesel generator, consuming fossil fuel.
In a PV-FC system, gas storage can be sized for the
complete system autonomy. There is no technical
constraint. The energy can be stored at anytime without
losses and deterioration whatever the consumption of
stored gases is. Currently, this large storage cannot really
be planned due to the low electrolyser pressure. Anyway,
the higher the electrolyser pressure is, the smaller is the
necessary storage, in a proportional way. In term of
autonomy, water and nitrogen consumption of those
systems has to be nil or as low as possible (part 3.2.). In
case of no water consumption, PV-FC systems are really
stand-alone energy generators.
3.4 Increasing of the renewable energy use
To be annually autonomous induces the possibility
for an energy production system to be sized using annual
average value of the solar production and of the load
consumption.
To size the PV field, the following equation is usually
used:
APV = Econs
ηPV ×PR×ESolar
with APV : PV field surface (m2)
Econs : average load consumption (kWh/day)
ηPV : PV efficiency (10-15%)
PR : Performance Ratio (System efficiency)
ESolar : Average Solar radiation used to size the
system (kWh/m2.day)
The Performance Ratio depends on the components
efficiency and on the time overlaps between the solar
production and the load demand.
For the PV-Batteries system sizing, ESolar is the
average solar radiation of the worst month during the
year due to the short autonomy capacity. In real
applications functioning around the world, the system
efficiency (PR) varies between 20% and 70%. The Figure
2 shows that the major domestic Stand Alone System
(SAS) made up of PV and Batteries has a PR between
30% and 40%. The ratio is usually less than 25% in
professional SAS [3].
14
12
Number of data sets
10
8
6
4
2
0
0.2 - 0.3 0.3 - 0.4 0.4 - 0.5 0.5 - 0.6 0.6 - 0.7
Performance ratio range
PV only PV Hybrid
Figure 2: Range of yearly performance ratio for typical
domestic SAS [3]
For the PV-FC system, the possible annual autonomy
allows a dimensionning based on the yearly average
value of the solar production and of the load.
A simulation model based on the test bench
components efficiency, has shown that PR is between
30% and 50% varying only with the match between the
solar production and the load demand. 30% is obtained
when the load demand occurs during the night (no over
laps). 50% corresponds to the best match between the
load and the sun. This ratio is limited to 50% due to the
storage efficiency and to the fact that in case of annual
autonomy, an important part of the solar production is
effectively stored (produces during the best seasons for
the worst seasons).
So, the PV-FC system comparing to the PV-Batteries
systems, could allow a best use of the renewable energy
and thus a reduction of the needed PV surface. All solar
production is in fact used by the end users or lost
electrically or thermally in the system. The efficiency will
be improved in case of cogeneration.
Conclusions:
The coupling of a PV field and an electrolyser allows
converting at high efficiency renewable electricity into
time-stable storage. There is no loss whatever the storage
time and no need of consumption to avoid storage
destruction.
Using a fuel cell to get back to electricity induces a
low efficiency but allows building a silent energy
generator consuming no materials.
The gas storage induces a complete autonomy during
all the year and increases the use of the renewable
production. If the system is sized to cogenerate electricity
and heat, those systems (load consumption / renewable
production) could reach a high global efficiency to be
compared to 35% for PV-Batteries systems.
4 EXPECTED SYSTEM COSTS
The actual investment for a PV-FC system is at
present very important. This is due to the high actual cost
of all components. As those devices are in drastic
development, the investment could become competitive
to the other Stand Alone System.
The Table I describes the cost of the different
components constituting the PV stand alone systems. The
cost of the PV, the batteries and the converters is
prevision for 2005 [4]. The forecasted price of the
electrolyser corresponds to the actual industrial
electrolyser cost (power range 30-300 kW). At present,
there is no commercial electrolyser in the range of 1 to 5
kW. The FC cost is an objective of automotive
constructers to be competitive against the thermal engine.
This very low price will be certainly respected due to the
important market. The last data concerns the storage. The
actual cost is very expensive. Gas furnishers usually lend
installations. The value is a hypothetical value
considering the components simplicity.
Table I: Prices of components forecasted in 2010
Component price forecasted in 2010
PV 2500 €/kW
EL 3 000 €/kW
FC 100 €/kW
Batteries 65-100 €/kWh
Gas Storage 50 €/Nm3
Converters 300 €/kW
This table shows that the planned cost of PV-FC
system components should become comparable to the PV
for the electrolyser and to the batteries for the FC.
Considering these values, the PV-FC system cost
could reach 4 €/W to be compared to the planned cost of
5 €/W in 2005 for the PV-Batteries [4]. Moreover, the
electrolyser lifetime is between 10 to 15 years. On the
other hand, the fuel cell is garantees for only about 4000
operating hours at nominal conditions. It is at present
impossible to precise the price of the produced kWh due
to the data lack on the lifetime and running costs.
Conclusions:
The PV-FC system is currently very expensive but
in the future, the investment should become competitive
to the other SAS depending of the planned reduction of
components prices.
5 NECESSARY PROGRESSES
In the actual state of our studies, essential progresses
have to be made in order to help the development of the
new hybrid system described in this article.
§ Storage pressure
Increasing the electrolysis pressure could largely
decrease the necessary storage size. The actual complete
autonomy is not conceivable due to the storage
dimensions and also its price. The price of the storage has
to be largely decreased. The pressure increase will induce
security measures.
§ PMU development
The progress in electronic has been very important
and the development of adapted PMU using that
technology allows high conversion efficiency and
performing energy management. The prototype
developed for our test bench will be evaluated.
§ FC improvement
As proved in the last parts, the fuel cell has to be
improved in many points. The efficiency is only 50%.
That low efficiency has an important effect on the global
system efficiency (30% to 50%). Its lifetime is not
important.
§ Cogeneration
The development of electrochemical devices already
designed for the cogeneration is important to increase the
global efficiency of the systems. For a stand-alone
application, special components should be developed for
cogeneration.
§ Components prices
All components should become less expensive in the
near future (2010 for the FC). The decrease is an
essential point, which will allow the competitiveness of
those systems in the stand-alone applications.
§ Security
Finally, an important fact that will make stop or go
the PV-FC system development is problems relying to
the hydrogen and oxygen storage. This part has to be
particularly studied in order to avoid any human hazards
that will induce the end of that environmentally friendly
solution.
6 CONCLUSIONS
New energy generators for stand-alone applications
are expected to increase the comfort of people. The actual
solutions are either limited by a low autonomy inducing
reduction of the electricity consumption during worst
seasons or noisy and using fossil energy. The presented
system allows a total autonomy, and consumes no
materials. Those systems have already existed but the
progresses realized in the FC and in the electronic field
promise good performance and reliability.
The studies done in the CENERG are based on the
analysis of a test bench. The installed PV-FC system has
been designed to operate automatically and safely. All
components have been optimised to meet the best system
performances.
The coupling of a PV field and an electrolyser allows
converting at high efficiency renewable electricity into
time-stable storage from pure water. Using a fuel cell to
get back to electricity allows building a noiseless energy
generator consuming no materials. The gas storage
induces a complete autonomy during all the years and
should increase the use of the renewable production.
The PV-FC system is currently very expensive but
in the future, the investment should become competitive
to the other stand-alone systems.
Although the presented system does not show high
efficiency and very low forecasted price, many progresses
are expected and necessary. In that case, it should be a
solution to the batteries replacement.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the European Commission
and ADEME for their financial contribution through
different projects.
7 REFERENCES
[1] S. Busquet, P. Leroux, D. Mayer, R. Metkemeijer,
Stand Alone Power System Coupling a PV Field and a
Fuel Cell: Experimental Results of the FC System,
France-Deutschland Fuel Cell Conference 2002.
[2] A.Brinner, H Bussmann, W.Hug and W.Seeger, Test
Results of the Hysolar 10 kW PV-Electrolysis Facility,
Int.J.Hydrogen Energy, Vol.17,N°3, pp.187-197, 1992.
[3] D.Mayer, Analysis of the operational performance of
PV systems, IEA PVPS programme, Final report, 1999
[4] The Future Fro Renewable Energy 2, Prospects and
Directions, Eurec Agency, 2002