Economic and Environmental Prospects of Battery and Fuel Cell Vehicles for the Energy Transition in German Communities

This integrated analysis finds, that the higher energy consumption of FCEVs could not be compensated by system benefits like Power2Gas and grid storage. The result is consistent with a similar analysis of a community in California. The simulation results reveal, that while the two vehicle types enable similar CO2 emission reductions, these can be realized at lower costs with BEVs than with FCEVs. The most striking observation was, that in the event seasonal H2 grid storage becomes necessary, FCEVs would in fact be less favorable than BEVs, which require less energy per km traveled and therefore leave more energy available for stationary applications.