Investigation of the load management and environmental impact of the hybrid cogeneration of the wind power plant and fuel cell

Abstract

A hybrid system is the most suitable option for supplying the network demand in a renewable resource power plant. In this paper, a hybrid system of fuel cell-wind turbine was assessed based on energy. For a country region with a sustainable wind speed, the system was studied, and its benefits and limitations were evaluated. In this work, based on regional wind data, the specifications of the elements were determined, and a model was simulated, which can assess the power production of a power plant. In the case study region, Kohak Qazvin, by applying the model, wind turbine capacity increased about 2%, and wind turbines and fuel cells contributed 39% and 61% in demand supplying, respectively. Some undesirable environmental effects of renewable energy were evaluated in this paper, including changes in regional ecosystem, thermal pollution production, chemical pollution, and biological pollution due to the use of fuel cell systems and digestive power plants. This paper investigates the environmental effects of using a hybrid wind turbine system, electrolysis system, solid oxide fuel cell and gasifier. The results showed that the hybrid system reduced 34.62% of carbon dioxide production, compared to the single system. Also the price of the electrical energy produced by the wind farm was 20.6 cent/kWh but by applying the hybrid system, the cost reduced to 15.47 cent/kWh.