Design of wind-powered alkaline electrolyzers: Balancing economic performance, degradation, and safety

This study examines the optimal design of electrolyzer systems for off-grid green hydrogen production powered by wind energy. It evaluates the impact of system pressure, degradation, wind power variability and the sizing factor on key performance metrics, including lifetime, production, and the levelized cost of hydrogen. The study introduces a novel approach to assess electrolyzer stack degradation by accounting for both continuous operation and ramping events through a newly defined state-of-health metric. Our findings reveal a significant decline in hydrogen production over time, with reductions of up to 28% across different wind power profiles. The optimal operating pressure for maximizing hydrogen production ranges between 8 and 13 bar, while the ideal electrolyzer capacity is 90%–100% of the wind farm size. Due to degradation, the minimum levelized cost of hydrogen can increase by up to 41%. The optimal electrolyzer size for minimizing levelized cost of hydrogen falls within 60%–90% of the wind farm size. Additionally, the optimal operating pressure considering the economic performance, initially between 22 and 30 bar, should be reduced by approximately 9 bar over the system’s lifetime to account for aging effects.