Sector coupling via hydrogen to lower the cost of energy system decarbonization

Abstract

There is growing interest in hydrogen (H${}_2$) use for long-duration energy storage in a future electric grid dominated by variable renewable energy (VRE) resources. Modelling the role of H${}_2$ as grid-scale energy storage, often referred as "power-to-gas-to-power (P2G2P)" overlooks the cost-sharing and emission benefits from using the deployed H${}_2$ production and storage assets to also supply H${}_2$ for decarbonizing other end-use sectors where direct electrification may be challenged. Here, we develop a generalized modelling framework for co-optimizing energy infrastructure investment and operation across power and transportation sectors and the supply chains of electricity and H${}_2$, while accounting for spatio-temporal variations in energy demand and supply. Applying this sector-coupling framework to the U.S. Northeast under a range of technology cost and carbon price scenarios, we find a greater value of power-to-H${}_2$ (P2G) versus P2G2P routes. P2G provides flexible demand response, while the extra cost and efficiency penalties of P2G2P routes make the solution less attractive for grid balancing. The effects of sector-coupling are significant, boosting VRE generation by 12-55% with both increased capacities and reduced curtailments and reducing the total system cost (or levelized costs of energy) by 6-14% under 96% decarbonization scenarios. Both the cost savings and emission reductions from sector coupling increase with H${}_2$ demand for other end-uses, more than doubling for a 96% decarbonization scenario as H${}_2$ demand quadraples. Moreover, we found that the deployment of carbon capture and storage is more cost-effective in the H${}_2$ sector because of the lower cost and higher utilization rate. These findings highlight the importance of using an integrated multi-sector energy system framework with multiple energy vectors in planning energy system decarbonization pathways.

19 pages, 7 figures

References in corpus (4)

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Cited by in corpus (8)

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• Integrating solid direct air capture systems with green hydrogen production: Economic synergy of sector coupling
• Multi-threshold time series analysis enables characterization of variable renewable energy droughts in Europe
• Multi-technology co-optimization approach for sustainable hydrogen and electricity supply chains considering variability and demand scale
• Decarbonization pathways for liquid fuels: A multi-sector energy system perspective
• Multi-sectoral Impacts of H2 and Synthetic Fuels Adoption for Heavy-duty Transportation Decarbonization