BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT | NUCLEAR HYDROGEN
Combining nuclear with solar to produce
clean and green hydrogen The IAEA report also includes a techno-economic study of electrolytic hydrogen production, using a nuclear-solar hybrid system (in Algeria) as an example. Hybridisation gives flexibility and reliability to the
hydrogen production system. However, the report concludes that integrating nuclear and solar in hybrid energy systems for hydrogen production is “not a trivial endeavour” because of the numerous subsystem components, complicated interconnections and interdependencies. In planning, developing and operation, the report says, the combined plant stakeholders may have conflicting goals. The IAEA analysis continues: “To guarantee the effective design, deployment and operation of the coupled system, this complexity gives rise to numerous relationships and uncertainties that need to be taken into account during system design and development stage”. It notes that existing energy infrastructure significantly influences compatibility and plant integration, and therefore the economic viability and sustainability of hydrogen production. In a nuclear-solar PV energy system powering a low
temperature electrolyser, both the nuclear and solar PV subsystems provide electricity for low temperature water electrolysis to generate hydrogen. The research studied a conventional water electrolysis
process powered by a hybrid solar-nuclear system consisting of a solar farm and a PWR. It found that, at low solar irradiance, the cost of hydrogen increases with an increasing solar fraction because of the low competitivity of solar in this range of solar irradiance. In contrast, at high solar irradiation, the cost of hydrogen decreases with an increasing solar fraction because the solar power is becoming more competitive than the nuclear system.
The research found that the cost of the production of the electricity of solar origin depends strongly on the values of the solar radiation incident on the PV panels. This has, of course, a direct effect on the cost of hydrogen production. At high solar irradiance (irradiance equal to or higher than 7 kWh/m2
), the solar electricity is more competitive and
using a large proportion of solar PV helps in bringing down the cost of hydrogen production. In this case, the solar PV subsystem saves nuclear fuel and brings down the cost of hydrogen production, while the nuclear subsystem provides the means to overcome the intermittency and the variability of solar energy. The research compares this with the more common
case where solar irradiance is not high, so the nuclear electricity is more competitive with that from solar PV. In this case, minimising the cost of hydrogen requires the contribution of solar-based electricity to be low and the solar fraction in the hybrid system should therefore be relatively small. Similar results are obtained for PV efficiency: there is
an increase in the cost of hydrogen production with an increase in the solar fraction for low efficiency PV systems and a decrease in its cost with an increase in solar fraction for high efficiency PV systems. These results are of importance in the design and the
operation of a hybrid nuclear solar system, for example in determining the solar fraction for optimum operation of the hybrid system that minimises the costs, helps overcome the solar intermittency and increases the time between fuel replacement operations in the nuclear reactor. It suggests that nuclear-solar hybrid systems for
hydrogen production benefit from the complementarity of the two clean energy sources: nuclear helps overcome solar intermittency, while solar helps save nuclear fuel and increases the time between reloads. ■
Above: Fuel cell stacks are just one application for a burgeoning green hydrogen industry Source: Outokumpu 48 | February 2025 |
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