Performance Analysis of Solar PV-Fuel Cell Integrated Floriculture Greenhouse

Abstract

The application of greenhouse technology for cultivation of high value crops is rapidly expanding worldwide. But the requirement of electricity imposes a restriction on the emanation of this technology to areas which are remote. In a developing country like India, where a significant number of villages are yet to be connected to any national or regional grid, this restriction assumes considerable significance. The present paper has been divided into two parts: The first part dealing with the performance analysis of a floriculture greenhouse located in the plains of Indian subcontinent equipped with fan induced ventilation system and wet pad along with shading screens. The second part deals with the performance analysis of the greenhouse integrated power system comprising of solar photovoltaic array, electrolyser and fuel cell stacks. The hourly photovoltaic generation, load consumption, cumulative daylong hydrogen gas generation and consumption have been computed for various seasons of a climatic cycle and presented in this paper.