Hydrogen production using solar energy resources for the South African transport sector

ABSTRACT This paper presents prospective of using solar energy resources to produce hydrogen for feeding hydrogen vehicles at a refuelling station in South Africa. Solar energy sources from Vredendal, located in the Western Cape Province of South Africa, were used for the study. Assessment was performed for a refuelling station having capacity to meet the hydrogen needs of 25, 50 and 100 number of vehicles per day. The results showed that the annual daily average solar irradiation on the horizontal surfaces and optimally tilted surfaces were 5.77 kWh/m2 and 5.933 kWh/m2, respectively. The solar power required to meet the hydrogen production demand for each of the three refuelling number of vehicles were determined to be 2.24, 4.24 and 8.95 MW, respectively. The cost of energy from the solar PV system as well as the cost of hydrogen production at the refuelling station for each of the three hydrogen vehicle capacities was calculated as (0.24, 0.239 and 0.237) $/kWh and (16.52, 15.95 and 15.67) $/kg, respectively. The PV system would displace 387, 774 and 1548 tons of coal per annum for each of the capacity, respectively. This will result in the avoidance of 780, 1560 and 3120 tons/yr of CO2, respectively.