Imagine you could sell electricity on the spot market at highest prices with smartly controlled hydrogen fuel cells.
Is it possible to increase the daily income more than 30% by selling renewable energy like wind and solar on peak spot market prices through smart day-ahead auction hydrogen and fuel cell technology?
The price for electricity is the lowest when the sun is shining around noon. Our peak loads are in the morning and the evening. On the Spot market is a significant difference between peak load price and base load price. Storing the renewable energy in lithium batteries in large quantities is far to expensive. While the hydrogen production is expensive the storing capacity is cheap and not restricted by cycles or rare earths.
Article en francais (coming soon)
Is the fuel cell economical to sell green electricity on the European Power Exchange EPEX?
In this article we take a look at possible economic benefits for smart direct selling, by storing energy from PV-Plants through hydrogen.
Can citizens solar arrays increase they return on investment?
Citezens solar arrays where a good opportunity for the folk to generate passive income through renewable energies. Citizens without property had the chance to part of the positive feeling from green energy. They could do something good against climate change.
How high was the yield of solar arrays with subsidized grid solar arrays?
Truly citizens solar arrays where more for the convicted ones. Even for huges farmlands where the solar electricity grid delivery was in the megawatt range, the paper works had to be done voluntarily. Between 2014 and 2021 the solar project got manly the subsidy.
The yield was mostly below 4 %. In addition, the depreciation was 10 to 20 years.
The clear conscience was left for the investors. Even though the CO2 bilance of Chinese pv modules was questionable.
Feel free to read our article about the FOOTPRINT of chinese PHOTOVOLTAICS
https://green-energy-scout.de/der-positive-fusabdruck-von-photovoltaik/
How high was the subsidy from the German government for green energy?
The German government took extra money for petrol and spent it for green energy as funding. The subsidy between 2014 and 2021 was about 6 Euro Cent per kilowatt-hour. The Consumer paid about 28 cent per kWh electricity at home.
That shows that the grid took 4 to 6 times the price for the transport and so on.
How high is the price on the spot market for direct grid selling?
Let us take a look at the day-ahead market.
Optimized yields with smart hydrogen-based electricity trading
Figure 1 Stock electricity prices summer 2022 by EnergieCharts
It’s clear that the price to sell electricity to the grid by direct trading is lowest around 12 o’clock. In the morning an at night the peak load is needed on grid. The Price difference on this August day 2022 was between 380 an 525 Euro per Megawatt €/MWh.
30 % more revenue through hydrogen buffered direct trading on a daily basis.
The advantage of hydrogen is the countless cycles you can load and unload a hydrogen gas storage tank. Lithium batteries have approximately 4000 cycles (maybe 10 years lifetime) until the owner has to dispose them on his costs. Furthermore, the costs for Lithium energy storage capacity is between 500 and 1000 €/kWh and with hydrogen you can store in 2 to 300 bar bottles for 20 €/kWh.
The cycles of hydrogen tanks are not relevant. If you work in a small pressure range the hydrogen filling and emptying rates could be endless.
Figure 2 recyclable hydrogen cylinder made from 34CrM04 Steel
The Initial Investment in electrolysers and fuel cells made with a lot of noble metals is well placed in a time of inflation and devaluation of saved money. Electrolysers in my eyes are a much better Investment in comparison to gold.
What does an electrolyser or a hydrogen generator cost?
If you have no space for a huge low-pressure tank, you need a compressor in addition to the electrolyser.
With conventional Manufacturers you get container solutions from 140 – 700 €/Nl of hydrogen production.
Only the VOLKS-ELECTROLYZER (VE) reaches Investments cost of 70 € per liter and hour of H2 Gas production. The V-Electrolyzer come with the systainable and non harmful PEM technology which reaches a incredible 4000 hour runtime (5 years maintenance free).
You can download our free international hydrogen price list for more information on Hydrogen equipment prices
https://green-energy-scout.de/download-free-excel-tools/
What is the benefit of seasonal hydrogen production from PV arrays to sell solar electricity in the wintertime to the grid?
Figure 3 Yearly eex price in germany 2021
The increase in value for every megawatthour you sell to the grid in winter is easy to see.
Who sells his solar energy in wintertime, when the wind isn’t blowing get approximately 600 € / MWh. The EEX informed his customers in August 2022 that the peak maximum price limit was highered to 4000 EUR/MWh.
Converted to consumer values, we are talking about 6 Cent up to 40 Cent per Kilowatt-Hour. That can be even more than the consumer Price in a household.
3 times the revenue by hydrogen based direct spot market trading
Citizens Solar arrays who convert green electricity from PV to Hydrogen in summer and sell the electricity to the grid in winter will make 3 times more money.
How much profit will a 1 MWpeak Solar Array bring after the hydrogen conversion?
In Germany 1 MW peak Photovoltaics will convert about 1000 MWh electricity per year. If we take a spot market price of 200 €/MWh the turnover will be 200.000 €.
On the day-ahead market the hydrogen converted PV array will bring 260.000 € per Year.
If the PV array investor converts 500 MWh to hydrogen in summer and converts them in winter
What can a hydrogen converted solar array do with negative electricity prices.
When strong wind blow and the grid is overloading the wind turbines have to be shut down. The spot market reacts with negative prices. That means a electrolyser could earn money by taking electricity from the grid. Good extra income for Investors and Citizens.
A solar array close to highways could operate a hydrogen gas station
Hydrogen cars pay 12,5 €/kg hydrogen in Germany. The best profit is of course when you sell the hydrogen directly to customers because the revenue is the highest. For 300 bar hydrogen fueling station have no different technologies than the normal hydrogen storage system.