The Current Technology and Economics of Storing Wind Electricity as Hydrogen

Wind is an intermittent source of electricity. If wind electricity could be economically stored, wind would quickly become European base load generating capacity. Based on the author's previous work, this paper updates the discussion of the technical and financial principles underlying the levelized cost method of computing the cost of wind electricity (WE) a stored in a model Italian Hydrogen Storage System (HSS) located next to a model Italian Wind Plant (WP). Topics include WP intermittency, the HSS technology, the electric energy storage cycle (charging, storage, discharging), the levelized cost method, sizing the HSS for a specific WP, HSS storage cycle efficiency, US$/€ exchange rate, WE cost, HSS capacity cost, depreciation, cost of capital, fixed and variable operating and maintenance(O & M) costs. The paper computes values for the levelized cost of storing the wind electricity by using two worksheets with benchmark input values; Computing the HSS Capacity (MW), Capacity Factor-%, Capacity Cost (€/MW) and Storage Cycle Efficiency (SCE-%) and Computing the HSS Levelized Cost (€/MWh) of Stored Wind Electricity. The paper discusses these benchmark input values as it analyzes the worksheets and the worksheets' computed output values. Readers can use the worksheets with their own input values to compute the levelized cost of storing wind electricity. This paper concludes that, even though it is technically possible, based on the current HSS capacity cost and storage cycle efficiency, storing wind electricity as H2 would increase the after storage cost of the wind electricity 4.4 times (€29.92→ €131.32/MWh).