Solar-to-wheels via decentralized green hydrogen micro-hubs powering hydrogen cargo bikes for last-mile logistics

Hydrogen cargo bikes offer a pathway to decarbonize last-mile logistics, yet hydrogen supply and fleet operation are often assessed separately and commonly assume grid electricity. This study develops a data-driven solar-to-wheels framework integrating anonymized Rome delivery data (7932 trips), decentralized photovoltaic (PV) hydrogen production, and fleet operations. Spatial demand is resolved at postal-zone (CAP) level for micro-hub siting. Human-constrained fleet sizing and resilience under variable solar output are included. Four scenarios are compared: diesel vans (S0), battery-electric cargo bikes (S1), hydrogen bikes using grid electrolysis (S2), and hydrogen bikes supplied by PV micro-hubs (S3). Results show that 59.5 kg H 2 day −1 can replace diesel operations serving 1586 daily deliveries (∼8923 km). Six PV–electrolyser hubs (∼128 kWp each) can supply this demand at 3.6–4.5 € kg −1 (∼0.14 € per delivery) with zero operational CO 2 emissions. Human-constrained sizing requires ∼88 hydrogen bikes versus ∼112 battery-electric units.