Study of the Economic Efficiency and Carbon Emission of a Wind-solar-coal Integrated Hydrogen Production System

The trend of energy transformation provides an opportunity for the development of hydrogen energy, which will become an important component of the future energy system. Due to the carbon reduction requirements under the dual carbon target, the demand for using clean electricity to produce green hydrogen has greatly increased, and the coordinated development of hydrogen and electricity has become increasingly important. This paper proposed a wind-solar-coal integrated system, by using the stable and adjustable power generation capacity of coal-fired power plants to balance the volatility of wind and solar power generation, it improves the efficiency of hydrogen production in electrolysis tanks, and thus enhance the overall economic efficiency of the system. At the same time, this article also calculated the system's carbon emissions. By taking an integrated combination in northwest district, this paper simulates the realtime hourly operation condition. The results show that the coal-fired unit has great cooperation ability with wind and solar PV, the cost is nearly 6–9 CNY lower than the average level, and the carbon emission intensity is at acceptable level. Two more scenarios with different proportion of coal electricity is analyzed, the results show that the integrated system proposed in this paper has utility value.