Study of hybrid photovoltaic/fuel cell system for stand-alone applications

• Modeling of a hybrid photovoltaic/fuel cell system is presented.
• Proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) is used.
• The produced Hydrogen is used by the fuel cell stack.

In this paper the modeling of a hybrid photovoltaic/fuel cell system is presented. It consists of a photovoltaic generator (PV), a proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC), and power conditioning units (PCU) to manage the system operation of the hybrid system. When there is an excess of solar generation available, the electrolyzer is turned on to begin producing Hydrogen which is sent to a storage tank. The produced Hydrogen is used by the fuel cell stack which produces electrical energy to supply the DC bus. The global system is modeled and simulated under Matlab/Simulink and results are presented and discussed.