Performance Characterization of a Hybrid PV-CSP-TES-PCM-SOEC System with Renewable Integration for Sustainable Hydrogen Production across Indian Climate Zones

Unofficial AI-generated summary based on the public title and abstract. Not an official translation.

🔬研究者:Novel combined scheduling optimization for SOEC with PCM storage under solar variability; offers methodology transferable to other climates.

🏢実務担当者:Demonstrates that operational flexibility can achieve near-continuous hydrogen output without expanding hardware, reducing capital costs.

🏛政策担当者:Supports that demand-side management in hydrogen production can improve energy security and reduce grid dependence, relevant for national hydrogen strategies.

Continuous green hydrogen production from solar energy faces two fundamental challenges. Solar resources are inherently intermittent. At the same time, solid oxide electrolysis cells (SOECs) require a stable, high-temperature thermal input around the clock. This study proposes a hybrid photovoltaic-concentrated solar power-thermal energy storage-solid oxide electrolysis cell (PV-CSP-TES-SOEC) system. The system uses anhydrous magnesium chloride (MgCl₂) as a high-temperature phase-change material (melting point ≈ 714 °C; latent heat 452 kJ kg⁻¹). This material bridges overnight thermal energy deficits and enables uninterrupted SOEC operation without grid support. Five Indian climate zones were investigated - Jodhpur, Ladakh, Nagpur, Bengaluru, and Kochi, using a full 8760-hour hourly dynamic simulation with NSRDB SUNY TMY data, preceded by static sizing to establish baseline component requirements. Static sizing shows that PV area varies by 22% across sites, while CSP aperture varies by up to 55%. The required MgCl₂ mass ranges from 190 to 240 t under baseline conditions. After optimisation, the required PCM mass increases to 325.7-823.9 t. Nagpur requires the highest due to prolonged monsoon-related solar suppression. Under constant-load SOEC operation, hourly reliability reaches only 62.1 to 68.7%. Hydrogen output drops to 729-788 kg day⁻¹, which is 27-33% below the 1080 kg day⁻¹ target. This shortfall is caused entirely by TES depletion during pre-dawn hours. A three-period flexible scheduling strategy is introduced. The SOEC operates at 0.6× load at night, 1.0× during shoulder hours, and 1.5-1.8× during the solar peak. This strategy restores full hydrogen output and increases reliability to 95.1-95.7% across all five sites. This corresponds to an improvement of 26-34 percentage points compared to constant-load operation. The results demonstrate that demand-side scheduling optimisation, rather than infrastructure oversizing, is the decisive factor enabling near-continuous grid-independent solar hydrogen production across climatically diverse locations.

• semanticscholar https://doi.org/10.65582/gti.2026.014first seen 2026-06-19 05:28:12