Performance Analysis and Optimization of Stand-Alone Solar PV System for Green Hydrogen Production: Case Study in Constantine, Algeria

In spite of the high operating costs and concerns over greenhouse gas pollution, fossil fuel generated energy continues to be the dominant source of local electricity generation in rural areas. It is conceivable to generate electricity from renewable sources as an alternative to fossil fuels in areas that are geographically isolated. In order to conduct power generation and hydrogen yield evaluations, the first step was to create models of a single solar cell, an electrochemical cell, and a battery. Performance curves for electrolyzer devices and solar cells were able to be developed as a result of this. The main objective is to test the performance of the system and to develop optimization method to minimize the global annual loss (GAL) and maximize the green hydrogen production. The city of Constantine in northeastern Algeria was used as a case study. The results show that the optimal performance of the solar PV system with minimum global annual loss (GAL) and hydrogen production rate (HPR) are respectively 10.97 % and 40864,70 m
³
, A combination of the number of solar photovoltaic cells (NPV) of 647, the number of batteries (NBT) of 120, and the number of parallel series electrolyzer cell configurations (Np/Ns) of 12/15 was found to produce the best and most ideal working conditions.