Control and simulation of a stand-alone wind hydrogen generation system

The potential to produce hydrogen from renewable
resources is of considerable interest due to fears over man-made
climate change and resource depletion. Hydrogen produced from
renewable resources can be used to generate electricity through a
fuel cell, or for other uses in a hydrogen economy. There are a
number of potential system configurations for hydrogen
production from electrolysis including grid connected and standalone.
In remote locations, stand-alone configurations are of
interest, and may prove more economically viable than grid
connected systems. In this paper a standalone wind - hydrogen
generation system is designed and proposed to take advantage of
an electrolyser capable of operating at very low power levels. A
dynamic model of the system is presented, along with a
maximum power point (MPPT) control algorithm of the system.
The potential yield of such a wind-hydrogen stand-alone system
located at the University of Glamorgan’s Hydrogen Centre is
investigated using wind speed data collected at the site and the
performance of the system under variable wind conditions
determined.