Optimal placement of electrolysers in a German power-to-gas infrastructure

摘要

The greenhouse gas targets of the German federal government can only be achieved if all energy sectors reduce their emissions. For the transportation sector, in particular, this will be a challenge. A possible solution is to use renewable hydrogen as fuel, e.g. in fuel cell vehicles, and IEK-3 has shown that this will allow the 2030 greenhouse gas targets to be achieved. Renewable hydrogen will be produced by electrolysis using the excess of renewable energy. For large-scale application, there is a need to identify the most socio-economically favorable locations of the electrolysers and their connections by electronic components such as rectifier, buck converter or filters. Here, we present and apply a regional model designed to identify locations of high excess renewable energy, which could be good candidates for electrolysers. The model is based on the hourly electrical load and renewable energy generation in all 11,268 townships of Germany. Load data is taken from a previous study, while weather data is used to model all photovoltaic panels (31.452 GW) and wind turbines (31.022 GW) of Germany. Results show that over 600 regions have an excess renewable generation, mainly in Schleswig-Holstein, Lower Saxony and Bavaria.