Direct coupling of a solar-hydrogen system in Mexico

The scope of this article is to show the initial results obtained in the interconnection of a 2.7 kW solar panel system with a solid polymer electrolyte (SPE) electrolyzer. The Non-Conventional Energies Department (ENC) at the Electrical Research Institute (IIE) considers that the storage of this intermittent energy by a chemical element such as hydrogen can be advantageous for certain applications. One of the arguments is that unlike traditional battery systems, hydrogen presents the great advantage of not discharging its energy content as long as it is not used.The solar-hydrogen (S-H) system proposed consists of a commercial electrolyzer stack by Proton Energy Systems and a photovoltaic (PV) solar system of 36 panels (75 W each) of monocrystalline silicon (Siemens) interconnected in a configuration for 2.7 kW power at 48VDC. The complete electrolyzer (stack plus auxiliaries) has a maximum capacity of 1000lN/h of hydrogen with a power energy consumption of 8 kVA (220VAC, 32 A) and uses a stack of 25 cells of SPE with an energy consumption of 5.6 kW. We present voltage, current and energy consumption of the electrolyzer as a whole system and of the stack alone, as well as hydrogen quantification for the Hogen 40 operating in laboratory. These results allowed us to estimate the possibilities of coupling the electrolyzer stack alone, i.e. no auxiliaries nor power conditioning, with the solar PV system. Results such as II–EE curves of the solar PV system obtained at different irradiances and temperatures, as well as II–EE curve of SPE electrolyzer stack, gave direction for confirming that PV system configuration was sufficiently good to have the electrolyzer stack working near the maximum power point at a good range of irradiances (∼∼600–800W/m2).