Micro-grid design and life-cycle assessment of a mountain hut's stand-alone energy system with hydrogen used for seasonal storage

Mori, Mitja (author), Gutiérrez, Manuel (author), Casero, Pedro (author)

Mountain huts, as special, stand-alone, micro-grid systems, are not connected to a power grid and represent a burden on the environment. The micro-grid has to be flexible to cover daily and seasonal fluctuations. Heat and electricity are usually generated with fossil fuels due to the simple on-off operation. By introducing renewable energy sources (RESs), the generation of energy could be more sustainable, but the generation and consumption must be balanced. The paper describes the integration of a hydrogen-storage system (HSS) and a battery-storage system (BattS) in a mountain hut. The HSS involves a proton-exchange-membrane water electrolyser (PEMWE), a hydrogen storage tank (H$_2$ tank), a PEM fuel cell (PEMFC) and a BattS consisting of lead-acid batteries. Eight micro-grid configurations were modelled using HOMER and evaluated from the technical, environmental and economic points of view. A life-cycle assessment analysis was made from the cradle to the gate. The micro-grid configurations with the HSS achieve, on average, a more than 70% decrease in the environmental impacts in comparison to the state of play at the beginning, but require a larger investment. Comparing the HSS with the BattS as a seasonal energy storage, the hydrogen-based technology had advantages for all of the assessed criteria.

• Language: English
• Keywords: mountain huts, micro-grid, hydroelectricity, energy storage, environmental impacts, net present costs
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FS - Faculty of Mechanical Engineering
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2021
• Number of pages: Str. 29706-29723
• Numbering: Vol. 46, iss. 57
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-138450
• UDC: 502.174.3:728.5
• ISSN on article: 0360-3199
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijhydene.2020.11.155
• COBISS.SI-ID: 41896707
• Publication date in RUL: 21.07.2022

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: International journal of hydrogen energy
• Shortened title: Int. j. hydrogen energy
• Publisher: Elsevier, Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC
• ISSN: 0360-3199
• COBISS.SI-ID: 3338511

Licences

• License: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
• Description: The most restrictive Creative Commons license. This only allows people to download and share the work for no commercial gain and for no other purposes.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: planinske koče, mikro omrežje, hidroenergija, shranjevanje energije, okoljski vplivi, neto sedanja vrednost

Projects

• Funder: EC - European Commission
• Funding programme: LIFE
• Project number: LIFE15 CCA/ES/000058
• Name: Sustainable Mountain Huts in Europe
• Acronym: SUSTAINHUTS

• Funder: ARRS - Slovenian Research Agency
• Project number: P2-0401
• Name: Energetsko strojništvo