2019 1st International Conference on Sustainable Renewable Energy Systems and Applications (ICSRESA), December 04-

05, 2019, Tebessa, Algeria

Techno-economic Analysis and Feasibility Study of a

Hybrid Photovoltaic/Fuel Cell Power System
GOUGUI Abdelmoumen1* DJAFOUR Ahmed1 DANOUNE M Bilal1
1*Facultédes Sciences Appliquées, 1*Facultédes Sciences Appliquées, 1*Facultédes Sciences Appliquées,
Laboratoire LAGE, Univ Ouargla, Laboratoire LAGE, Univ Ouargla, Laboratoire LAGE, Univ Ouargla,
Ouargla 30 000 Algérie. Ouargla 30 000 Algérie. Ouargla 30 000 Algérie.
OUARGLA, ALGERIA OUARGLA, ALGERIA
OUARGLA, ALGERIA
djafour.ah@univ-ouargla.dz danoune.mohammed.bilal@gmail.com
abdelmoumengougui@gmail.com
ahdjafour@yahoo.fr

KHALFAOUI Narimane1 REHOUMA Youssef 1

1*Facultédes Sciences Appliquées,
1*Facultédes Sciences Appliquées,
Laboratoire LAGE, Univ Ouargla, Laboratoire LAGE, Univ Ouargla,
Ouargla 30 000 Algérie.
Ouargla 30 000 Algérie.
OUARGLA, ALGERIA
OUARGLA, ALGERIA
khelfaoui_narimane@yahoo.fr yourehouma@gmail.com

Abstract—The first goal of this work is to model a
renewable/clean energy system that meets a well-known electric
load, the system combined with a photovoltaic (PV) array, a fuel
cell and batteries. The study analysis labelling the power load
data from an electrical laboratory (LAGE) situated in Ouargla
University, Algeria (with annual electrical energy demand of
27 kWh/day) that this laboratory was occupied during the day
time in the majority of case, in this structure the integrating of a
fuel cell stack, an electrolyzer and a hydrogen storage cylinder is
utilized for energy storage system, the proposed process in this
study was modelled, optimized and simulated using (HOMER)
software. For identifying the optimum system configuration on
the basis of the Net Present value fee (NPC) strategy, the results
recommended that a total of 4.5 kW power production by PV
panels along with 1.5 kW fuel cell power is supported with eight
battery of 6V and 1150 Ah for each and 3.8 kW electrolyser,
different combinations of a PV system, fuel cell rig and set of
battery sizes were chosen.
Keywords— renewable energy, photovoltaic, fuel cell, economic,
optimized, HOMER, Net Present Cost(NPC).
I.INTRODUCTION
Solar, wind and hydro-power sources are widely used in
hybrid energy systems, although most of the non-conventional
sources available on earth consist of various kind of solar
energy. A system of the combination of these various sources
has the benefit of equilibrium and stability [1]. The
photovoltaic (PV) notion is well comprehended and millenary
of PV-based power systems are of PV-based power systems
are presently being deployed to provide power to remote,
small length-scale, grid/independent applications [2], also, the
use of non- conventional energy sources enhances to decrease
fossil fuel combustion and the resulting CO2 emission.
However renewable energy resources are not able meeting the
aggregate demand for 24 hours due to variation of solar/wind
energy generation, therefore, hybrid energy system belongs at
list of two principal energy sources and storage components
for elevating system efficiency and as well as ensuring the
balance in electrical energy supply [3], in the most of case the
surplus of both PV and WG generated electricity takes place
in batteries can be regained during span night time. Indeed the
use of FC rig combined PV/WG/battery shorten battery
storage requirements. In this framework, the main wellspring
of yielding power is the sun based solar photovoltaic while the
fuel cell and electrochemical batteries labelling as support to
supply the load and used as a backup system, also the fuel cell
is an attractive option because it has an important efficiency
and suitable for feeding facilities applications such as
laboratories and feeding emergency power generation [4].
In this work an energy consumption labelling scheme was
introduced for LAGE laboratory, Ouargla, indeed this region
has a high potential of renewable energy such as solar as
reported in [5],[6]that most often this laboratory was occupied
during the day time, after that, a monetary assessment of a
hybrid photovoltaic/fuel cell performed to meet this laboratory
have been presented, the modelling, optimization and
simulation of the studied system were conducted using
HOMER 2.81 beta version.
II.HOMER SOFTWARE
HOMER software has been established by NREL[7], this
software will select the best possible power system doable
configuration that can manage with the desired load demand.
The analysis is based on; the modelled Cost (NPC) method,
the replacement cost, the fee of maintenance and operation
system. In this report, where the hybrid energy process on the
basis of PV generators, fuel cell, electrolyzer, converter and a
hydrogen tank, as mentioned in Fig.1
Fig. 1. HOMER modelled PV/Fuel cell system

978-1-7281-5356-8/19/$31.00 ©2019 IEEE

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 III.SOLAR RESOURCE FOR STUDYING SITE
For the Ouargla province (Latitude of 31o 95' N , Longitude
of 5 o 24' E , and Altitude of 0.141above MSL), solar radiation
set databases were attained from the PV-GIS [8]. Figure.2
Represents the profile of solar radiation throughout a one-year
period.
The yearly rated solar radiation for this province is about 5.45
kWh/m²/day.

Fig. 2. Monthly average solar radiation kWh / m2/day and

index of clearness. Fig. 3. Average monthly load profile kWh for LAGE
laboratory centre
V.LOAD/DEMAND ASSESSMENT
VI.HYBRID SYSTEM MODELING
Undoubtedly, the load profile of any study area is the most
significant criteria in the optimization process, indeed in order A hybrid generation power system that consists of a PV
to meet the LAGE laboratory load requirements such as generator, a battery set, with FC rig fed by hydrogen
electrical appliances which has a daily average AC load of 27 extracted by electrolyser, the simplified diagram of this
kWh/day, the power consumption and operation hours for each system provided by HOMER 2.81 Beta shown in Fig.1,
electrical appliance presented in Table 1. the feasible optimized solution of system parts reveals the
following results :
TABLE I: MEAN CONSUMED POWER OF LAGE LABORATORY - The PV array size.
APPLIANCES - Battery bank number
- The DC/AC circuit converter size.
Appliances Average power (W) Number O.H - The fuel cell size.
- The scale of hydrogen preserved bottles for
Printer 500 1 6 electrolyser.
PCs 50 3 11
Refrigerator 100 1 24 V. SYSTEM PERFORMANCE
Lighting bulb 72 3 11 A. PV system
Wifi rotour 20 1 24 The under-considered scenario was modelled with PV
Air condition 1200 1 11 panels slope angle is set to 31° that referring to the
Cooler water 100 1 24 parallel of latitude of the studied site and the array
Diverse devices 20 6 11 azimuth range is 0o which is referencing the south
direction.
O.H*: Means operating hours during the day.

The electricity demand of LAGE department is fluctuant

due to several factors including weather variations - an
extremely hot summer, students experiment period, in
addition in weekend time and dinner period(break time) some
appliance is turned off, except for the necessary equipment
that needs 24 hours operation like refrigerator, in the ongoing
study a 4.2kW has been considered to scale peak load.

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Fig. 4. Annual PV output power
This PV array system has a lifetime of 25 years and a floor
reflectance is 20%. The installed cost of a 1-kW (peak) PV
array ranges between $6.00/W and $10.00/W, the efficiency at
the STC condition is 13%. A de-rating factor of 80% was
applied to the electric production from each panel. This
coefficient is intended to reduce PV production by 20% in
order to approximate the varying impacts of either temperature
and dust on the panels[9].
B. Battery storage bank
The battery set is an essential energy storage process to
ensure continuous supply even when the solar array is unable
to produce any power, the chosen battery is the Plomb-Acid
Surrette 6CS25P type. It has a nominal constant-voltage of 6
Volts and a nominal capacity of 1156 Ah. Eight batteries are
matched in series were considered by HOMER in the
simulation.
C. Converter
The Photovoltaic output power is in form DC; hence the
studied load requires AC power form system, for this reason, a
DC/AC rectifier has been chosen the rectifier efficiency was
presumed to be 90 per cent, respectively for all the sizes
considered, also, the initial and replacement cost of 1kW was
800 $ and 750$ [10].
D. Fuel cell
In the HOMER software, there is no opportunity to include a
specific type of fuel cell. The budget range and the technical
characteristics are considered in this process for the PEMFC.
A PEM fuel cell was assumed for this study which is suitable
for small scale grid. The fuel cells fee varies greatly contingent
on the size, reformer requirements, power electronics and
auxiliary requirements. Indeed, the stationary power fuel cells
are targeted at last from Thirty thousand to Forty thousand
operating hours[9], contingent on this case, the fuel cell
membrane is possibly needed to be replaced one or more
times. This study assumed the fuel cell would last 40000
hours. That the fuel cell forced on during 17:00-8:00 in the
summer period, in turn, from 19:00 to 6:00 in the wintertime.
The screenshot of fuel cell working time highlighted in Fig. 5
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Fig. 5. The operation time for the fuel cell.
E. Electrolyser system
The hydrogen can be mainly generated through a device
named electrolyser by passing DC current through electrodes
immersed in water where hydrogen is spilt at cathode face and
the molecule of oxygen is spilt at the anode. The total reaction
for splitting water is [11], the net volume of hydrogen
produced at the cathode is straight proportional to the
electrolyzing current and number of electrolysers connected in
series, in this study the electrolyser work 5543h/year and
produce 0.019kg/hour with a total hydrogen production rate of
168 kg/years. The monthly electrolyser consumption power is
illustrated in Fig .6.
Fig. 6. Electrolyser consumption power.
F. Hydrogen Storage
The hydrogen produced by means of the electrolyser can
be stowed in several methods, such as a compressed gas or as
a metal hydride. However, the price of hydrogen per kg
contingent on the size of hydrogen tank for small-sized tanks
average price for 1kg of hydrogen capacity is predicted to be
1200 $ [12].
VI. POWER MANAGEMENT STRATEGY
The dispatch process is load-following type and interaction
between the various parts as pointed follows: in normal usage,
PV feeds the desired load demand, the overabundant energy
from PV is preserved in the chemical accumulator until the
full capacity of the battery is reached kept in form hydrogen
substance which extracted by the electrolysis of H2O and later
switched into electric energy with hydrogen FC According to
the
 HOMER simulates all the plausible system configurations on
the basis of the combinations of the components specified to it
as input data and relinquish the infeasible system
configurations that do not appropriately meet the suggested
load, hence, only the tenable and doable combinations are
displayed regarding the global net present value cost (NPC).
The optimization results row are given out in an overall form
as presented in Table III.

Fig. 7. Monthly average generation of electricity. TABLE III. OVERALL OPTIMIZATION OUTCOMES TABLE
SHOWING SYSTEM CONFIGURATIONS SORTED BY THE TOTAL
operating system situation, the battery storage will NET PRESENT FEE
import/export the needed energy. that
if the PV production surpass the load and the battery charging The optimal feasible size and the annual production rate for
status (SOC) is maximum, the overabundant energy
is supplied to the electrolyser, the hydrogen generated by this
later was stored in hydrogen bottles, the FC is brought into the
line the load and battery storage are not satisfied with the PV,
(likewise when the battery’s SOC is minimum). Fig. 7
Displays the monthly average power production of each power
source.
VII. COST OPTIMIZATION AND RESULTS
SIMULATION

The major destination of this research is to accomplish a

stand-alone hybrid generation scheme that should be properly the principal components on the basis of NPC are presented in
designed with regard to financial, reliability, and Table III that the large share of annual power generation
environmental measures topic to physical and operational provided by the PV system with 95 % and the residual amount
constraints/strategies [11,12]. The costs of the overall system ensured by the fuel cell.
are represented as the algebraic sum of the PV costs' number
(CPV), battery costs (CBAT), electrolyser costs (CELEC), FC TABLE III: RATED POWER CONSUMPTION OF LAGE LABORATORY
APPLIANCES PROPOSED BY HOMER
costs (CFC), converter costs (CCONV costs)and hydrogen tank
coast (CTANK ) Size Production
Csystem = C PV + C BAT + C ELE + C FC + CCONV + CTANK (1) Components
The value cost should also be deducted for each element: PV 4.5 KW 23.61 (KWh/year )
Ci = N i * [CCost i + RCost i * K i + OMCosti ] (2)
i = PV, Wind turbine generator, Battery, FC, Electrolyser, PAC 1.5 KW 1.356 (KWh/year )
Converter, hydrogen tank. Battery 8 elements /
Where Ni is the number/size of the process parts, underinsured
Converter 5.1KW /
is the capital cost, RCosti is the net fee replacement, Ki is the
total number of replacement, and OMCosti is activity and Electrolyser 3.8 KW 168(Kg/year)
upkeep fee through the system operation, the initial cost, H2 tank 3.5Kg /
replacement cost, the fee of maintenance and operation system
and the Salvage as input into the HOMER software is
portrayed in Table II. VIII. CONCLUSION
TABLE II: MEAN CONSUMED POWER OF LAGE LABORATORY
APPLIANCES. An independent energy system combining non- conventional
energy sources, such as photovoltaic and batteries or hydrogen
Composant Capital Replacement O&M Salvage Total as a storage and backup system are proposed to satisfy LAGE
($) ($) ($) ($) ($) laboratory appliance, the simulation results indicated that a
PV 14.5 0 0 0 14.5 hybrid power process basically comprising of 4.5 (kW),
PAC 2.25 1.026 4.551 -76 7.751 photovoltaic scheme of 1,5 (kW) fuel cell, and a set battery
Battery 9.2 655 1.023 -188 10.689 storage of 6 hours of autonomy, would be a plausible solution
Converter 4.080 1.596 652 -297 6.031 for distributed generation of electric power for stand-alone
Electrolyser 5.7 1.586 972 -295 7.962 applications at LAGE laboratory. The fee of generating energy
H2 tank 4.2 0 895 0 5.095
from the above hybrid PV/FC/battery system has been found
System 39.93 4.862 8.092 -857 52.028
to be 0.426 (US$/kWh) with zero per cent capacity shortage.

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The combined PV/FC/battery power system promises myriad
benefits such as utilization rate of PV generation is high; load
can be satisfied optimally; reliable power supply; and a
lowering in the capacities of PV, FC and battery (while
matching the peak desired loads) can occur. The
environmentally-friendly nature of the hybrid system.
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