Autonomous hydropower plant for electricity and hydrogen production

Relevance. The primary limitation to the widespread adoption of hydrogen energy lies in the high cost of hydrogen production. The "green" technology for hydrogen production is based on water electrolysis, which requires a significant amount of electricity, typically sourced from environmentally friendly, renewable energy sources. To improve the technical and economic performance of water electrolysis, either cheap electricity or the technical necessity to divert part of it to ballast loads for stabilizing the operating mode of the energy source is required, a scenario often observed in renewable energy systems. This work proposes the use of an electrolyzer as a ballast to produce hydrogen. Considering this approach, along with the low cost of electricity generated by micro-hydropower plants an order of magnitude lower than that of wind and solar energy the task of developing a hybrid energy system becomes highly relevant. This system would produce both electricity and hydrogen, utilizing the hydraulic potential of small water streams as the primary energy source for electricity generation and using water as the raw material for hydrogen production via electrolysis. Aim. To provide a technical and economic justification for the combined production of electricity and hydrogen at a micro-hydroelectric power plant with ballast stabilization of the operating mode Methods. Analytical methods in the field of designing energy supply systems for consumers. Results. It is found out that the proposed system for hydroelectric power plant using PEM (electrolyzer with polymer electrolyte membranes) based electrochemical analyzer provides relatively cheap electricity and also produces hydrogen at low cost, approximately 0.99 USD/kWh. The paper proposes the use of electrochemical analyzer and its method of operation for efficient utilization of energy that is lost in nature in the form of ballast load.