Here we present the successful scaling of a thermally integrated photoelectrochemical device—utilizing concentrated solar irradiation—to a kW-scale pilot plant capable of co-generation of hydrogen .
Can a solar hydrogen production plant co-generation a kilowatt-scale pilot plant?
Solar hydrogen production devices have demonstrated promising performance at the lab scale, but there are few large-scale on-sun demonstrations. Here the authors present a thermally integrated kilowatt-scale pilot plant, tested under real-world conditions, for the co-generation of hydrogen and heat.
Is sunhydrogen demonstrating green hydrogen panels at a 1m2 scale?
CORALVILLE, IA – October 21, 2024 – SunHydrogen, Inc. (OTCQB: HYSR), the developer of a breakthrough technology to produce renewable hydrogen using sunlight and water, today shared an update on the Company's progress toward demonstrating its green hydrogen panels at the commercially-relevant 1m² scale.
Notably, a two order-of-magnitude increase in solar hydrogen production power (HHV) is achieved when compared with previous results: 32 W (ref. 3) vs >2.0 kW achieved in this work (averaged over total experimental time).
As outlined in Supplementary Table 3, the maximal peak hydrogen production rate calculated over a 5 minute window was 14.0 Nl min −1 (1.26 g min −1), and during the complete campaign, more than 3.2 kg of solar hydrogen was produced. The system produces on average 10.6 kW th of thermal heat at an outlet temperature of 45.1 °C, as defined in Methods.
At an output level of about half a kilogram of solar hydrogen per day, the EPFL campus system could power around 1.5 hydrogen fuel cell vehicles driving an average annual distance; or meet up to half the electricity demand and more than half of the annual heat demand of a typical four-person Swiss household.
How can solar-electrolysis reduce the cost of green hydrogen produced?
The solar to hydrogen (STH) efficiency of photovoltaic-electrolysis (PV-E) setups is a key parameter to lower the cost of green hydrogen produced. Commercial c-Si solar cells have neared saturation with respect to their efficiency, which warrants the need to look at alternative technologies.