Abstract

Green hydrogen is poised to be a critical vector in the global energy transition and plays a crucial role in reducing carbon emission and creating a global clean energy market. However, the economic viability of large-scale green hydrogen production hinges on hybrid renewable energy systems optimal design and location. Namibia has an excelled wind and solar energy potential, enabling a feasible cost-effective green hydrogen production from intermitted renewable energy. This study developed a techno-economic optimization model for cost-effective green hydrogen facilities in Namibia using a single-objective genetic algorithm to determine the optimal wind, solar, and battery storage capacities needed to meet an annual production target of 355,000 tons at Luderitz, Namibia. The model runs on an hourly time-series simulation and uses a discounted cash flow method to minimize the Levelized Cost of Hydrogen (LCOH) for a full year. The results of optimized system gave a LCOH of $2.50/kg compared to $7.5/kg obtained from study on local hydrogen production analysis. This demonstrated the superior performance of the proposed algorithm. A sensitivity analysis was performed on the green hydrogen system where different numbers of electrolysers were used. A range of 150 to 200 units each rated 17.5 MW. Using the proposed algorithm, it was discovered optimal number of Electrolysers that results in optimal LCOH is between 196 and 200 units. The findings demonstrated that LCOH is not just an average value as had been demonstrated by various documented publications