ESRIG-EES colloquium: Victhalia Zapata, MSc EES student

Title: Feasibility of hydrogen productionin desert areas for export and its comparison to domestic hydrogen production in The Netherlands.

Summary:
In the sight of an energy system without significant CO2 emissions, some countries may find that the capacity of a steady and secure supply of their energy demand from domestic renewable energy resources is limited or economically unviable. Solar, wind and wave source of energy are very variable and dependent on weather conditions. In temperate and polar zones, some countries may find difficulties for keeping up with a higher demand and lower sun irradiance in winter season. Renewable energy import is going to be a feasible option in a world with a CO2 free energy system and hydrogen as a renewable energy carrier could fill this gap.

In this study the energy and environmental feasibility of producing and exporting hydrogen in Morocco and Australia from solar energy is analyzed and compared to producing hydrogen for domestic consumption in The Netherlands from wind energy. The Australia scenario for hydrogen export has the largest productivity even when taking in account differences in transport distance when compared to Morocco scenario which inturn has a larger productivity than the domestic reference scenario in the Netherlands.