Combined Cooling and Power Management Strategy for a Standalone House Using Hydrogen and Solar Energy

Abstract

Tropical climate is characterized by hot temperatures throughout the year. In areas subject to this climate, air conditioning represents an important share of total energy consumption. In some tropical islands, there is no electric grid; in these cases, electricity is often provided by diesel generators. In this study, in order to decarbonize electricity and cooling production and to improve autonomy in a standalone application, a microgrid producing combined cooling and electrical power was proposed. The presented system was composed of photovoltaic panels, a battery, an electrolyzer, a hydrogen tank, a fuel cell, power converters, a heat pump, electrical loads, and an adsorption cooling system. Electricity production and storage were provided by photovoltaic panels and a hydrogen storage system, respectively, while cooling production and storage were achieved using a heat pump and an adsorption cooling system, respectively. The standalone application presented was a single house located in Tahiti, French Polynesia. In this paper, the system as a whole is presented. Then, the interaction between each element is described, and a model of the system is presented. Thirdly, the energy and power management required in order to meet electrical and thermal needs are presented. Then, the results of the control strategy are presented. The results showed that the adsorption cooling system provided 53% of the cooling demand. The use of the adsorption cooling system reduced the needed photovoltaic panel area, the use of the electrolyzer, and the use of the fuel cell by more than 60%, and reduced energy losses by 7% (compared to a classic heat pump) for air conditioning.

An energy management of a combined cooling and power cogeneration system using hydrogen energy for an off-grid application

“…Results showed that the system is able to provide the electrical and thermal needs of the load and the TCS improved the efficiency of the electrolyzer by 15% and of the fuel cell by 21%. In this study, constant efficiency using average values of previous work [6] were considered for the fuel cell, the electrolyzer and the heat pump. In future work, efficiencies will vary according to the operating points of the system's components.…”

“…They correspond to the consumption of a hotel room for two people with lights, a refrigerator, a fan, and an AC unit. A more complete description of the system can be found in [6]. For more information on the project readers are invited to visit [12].…”

“…Then it defines the constraints used into the optimization process and finally presents the objective function. The experimental validation of the electrolyzer and the fuel cell models used in this work can be found in [6].…”

“…They proved that hydrogen storage reduces the sizing of PV panels and battery capacity and also that renewable energy based solution is cheaper than diesel based system. Our previous work [6] uses a rule-based energy management in order to provide electrical and cooling needs in an isolated application. But, without the optimization process, a part of the energy provided by the PV panels were lost and the aging of components was not taken into account.…”

Methodology for Energy Management in a Smart Microgrid Based on the Efficiency of Dispatchable Renewable Generation Sources and Distributed Storage Systems

“…This case study, as well as those presented in [63], highlights how state of charge and usable battery capacity can limit the profitability of this EMS. This criterion is again of particular relevance [64], where different EMSs are compared, with the management methodology based on the battery charging cycle being the optimal one for this case study [65]. Finally, there are also cases of EMSs where energy management is aimed at battery care, seeking to extend battery life and optimise performance over the life of the battery [66][67][68][69].…”