Modelling and analysis of a distributed green hydrogen generation system integrating concentrating solar power with thermal energy storage

The study proposes a decentralized green hydrogen generation facility to reduce excess storage and transportation costs across various Indian regions. The proposed system is modelled with capacities ranging from 5 MW to 20 MW, utilizing concentrating solar power (CSP) technology integrated with thermal energy storage (TES). An extensive techno-economic assessment is conducted, along with a numerical investigation of the TES system, which reveals that the TES charging is completed after 11.08 h, with a temperature of 375.4 °C. Average energy and exergy efficiencies during TES charging are observed to be 90.17 % and 36.16 %, respectively. After a 6-h discharging process, the TES temperature drops to 354.2 °C, with a melt fraction of 0.16. The maximum energy and exergy efficiencies at the end of discharging are found to be 41.4 % and 21.72 %, respectively. However, the system efficiency from incident solar energy to generator yield is 14.65 % with TES. An economic analysis compares system costs across different regions of varying solar DNI (kWh/m2/day) from 2.54 (Region-1) to 6.55 (Region 5). The Region-1 requires 88.51 % higher system investment than Region-5. The levelized costs of electricity and hydrogen in Region-5 are 43.20 % and 33.33 % inferior, respectively, compared to Region-1, exhibiting minimal variation across different plant capacities.