Techno-economic assessment of energy storage systems for enabling projected increase of renewables onto electrical power grids

Hydrogen is seen by many industry leaders as an energy vector that has the potential to provide essential energy stores required to facilitate the wide spread connection of renewable energy inputs. The techno economic assessment of using hydrogen as an energy storage mechanism, where water (H2O) is split into H2 and Oxygen (O2) when excess renewable energy is available through the use of electrolysis will be examined. H2 will be stored and O2 vented. Fuel Cells (FC), Internal Combustion Engines (ICE) or gas turbines would then be used to convert stored H2 to generate and supply electrical infrastructure with electrical power when demand exceeds renewable supply. Presented in this paper are the findings of a techno economic assessment of existing energy storage systems in comparison to Hydrogen (H2) energy storage technologies.