Energy, Economic and Environmental (3E) Assessment of Wind Powered Electricity Generation with Hydrogen Storage in Vesleskarvet, Antarctica

Clean and sustainable electricity could be generated from hydrogen produced from renewable energy resources. This paper performs an assessment of Energy, Economic and Environmental (3E) potentials of hydrogen fuel cells for electricity generation in Vesleskarvet. This site is a remote area located in Antarctica and is being used as the base for South African National Antarctic Programme (SANAE IV). The hydrogen used as feedstock to the fuel cell was generated from the wind energy resource of Vesleskarvet using water electrolysis technique. Four large wind turbines—DE Wind D7, ServionSE MM100, Alstom E110 and Gamesa G128 designated as WT₁, WT₂, WT₃ and WT₄, respectively—were selected to determine which of them best matches the wind characteristics of the site for hydrogen production. Key results reveal that the capacity factor of the wind turbines is 62.78%, 58.37%, 63.80% and 57.94%, respectively. WT₄ has the best annual hydrogen productions potential of about 307 tons per annum with the cost of electricity of 2.47 USD/kWh and payback period of 5.4 years. The wind turbine will prevent the use of 1.76 × 10⁶ litters of diesel fuel resulting in a reduction of CO₂ and CO emission of 4.83 × 10⁶ and 1.37 × 10⁴, respectively.