Techno-economic Assessment of Deployment of Hydrogen Produced via Renewable Energy Technology as Clean Fuel for Power Plants

At present, Thailand uses natural gas, which has an increasing price tendency, as the main fuel for electricity generation. Natural gas also leads to a large amount of greenhouse gas emissions. The present research therefore aimed to study a guideline, for being a pilot project, for the production of hydrogen fuel as an alternative cleaner fuel for electricity generation from renewable energy technologies; the gas can also be used as a backup fuel source to improve the country's energy security. Techno-economic assessment of the hydrogen production from solar photovoltaic and electrolyzer technologies within the 4,000- rai land area of the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand in the Thap-Sakae District, Prachuap Khiri Khan Province was conducted. The produced hydrogen would be utilized as a substitute for natural gas in the electricity generation at Bang-Pakong Thermal Power Plants in case of insufficient natural gas for power generation. The levelized cost of hydrogen (LCOH) was considered, while the levelized cost of energy (LCOE) was determined by considering the clean hydrogen used to replace natural gas to produce electricity. The results revealed that hydrogen production from polycrystalline solar cells and solid oxide electrolyzer exhibited the lowest production cost. LCOH was 132.933 Baht/kg, while LCOE was 9.875 Baht/kWh.