Investigation and Analysis of Solar and Wind Energy Potential for Green Hydrogen Production via Alkaline Water Electrolysis

Hydrogen is being explored in several industrial applications to produce various chemicals products, including ammonia and methanol. However, conventional hydrogen production is associated with harmful emissions and relies heavily on depleting fossil fuels. Renewable energy sources have been offered as alternative energy supplies to minimize fossil fuels and ensure lower emission levels, therefore, providing a sustainable energy transition. Renewable energy sources, such as solar photovoltaics (PV) and wind turbines (WT), are gaining wide attention for the production of green hydrogen. This article focuses on the storage of renewable energy generation to enhance the production process of green hydrogen. One of the main obstacles to the rapid development of renewable energy is the need for inexpensive, highly efficient energy storage. Integrating renewable energy sources into green hydrogen production stands out as a promising solution to this problem. This work aims to evaluate the potential of hydrogen production by electrolysis from solar PV and wind energies. The implemented methodology is a theoretical model of a caustic electrolyzer connected to a solar PV panel and a wind generator. The study assessed the input/output power of solar and wind energy and calculated the green hydrogen production rate to underline the efficiency of the MPPT controller and renewable-based hydrogen production systems. According to the simulation results obtained using the MATLAB/Simulink environment, the hydrogen production system performs effectively, especially in terms of energy efficiency. Taking into account the final results, the Wind energy demonstrates superior performance in green hydrogen production, achieving 90% efficiency and a rate of 1.2 Nm3/h, significantly outperforming solar photovoltaics’ 82% efficiency and 0.66 Nm3/h.