Economic analysis and assessment of a standalone solar-hydrogen combined heat and power system integrated with solar-thermal collectors

The paper presents a techno-economic assessment and analysis of a novel hybrid renewable system simulated in TRNSYS that consists of a solar-hydrogen combined heat and power system integrated with solarthermal collectors (SH CHP-ST) for standalone applications. An economic model considering the rate of decrease in price and the limit cost of non-mature technologies is developed and metrics about the efficiencies, system reliability, economic, and environmental performance for the system are defined. These are applied to a case study of a remote household application in Victoria, Australia. Considering a reference scenario of using a conventional diesel generator for power supply and LPG for hot water supply, the results of this analysis confirmed the economic feasibility of implementing the SH CHP-ST system for remote household applications along with high reliabilities (100% for power, and 95% for thermal) for the case study. The results also suggest possibilities for the system to be competitive against grid supply and LPG for electricity and gas water heating in standard grid-connected household applications. A sensitivity analysis is carried in order to study the effect of some parameters (e.g. interest rate, capital costs the hydrogen components, increase in loads, etc.) on the metrics of the system.