Potentials for green hydrogen production via CSP-PV-hybrid-power-plants in the MENA region
What could be the role of Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) in the future hydrogen economy? This study offers a comprehensive assessment of different renewable energy sources (CSP, PV, and wind) to produce green hydrogen products focusing on the techno-economic analysis in the MENA region.
Scenario definition:
- Sites: Five representative sites in Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia
- Technologies and system selection: Two scenarios are compared - a technology-open scenario comprising CSP, PV, wind, and storage options, and a CSP/PV hybrid scenario that excludes wind.
- PtX product cases: Three key PtX commodities: green hydrogen, green ammonia, and green methanol.
- Time horizons: 2030 vs. 2050. The latter assumes cost reductions for specific components but maintains other critical parameters for the sake of consistency.
Referring to the starting question, the answer is yes – there is role for CSP in the future hydrogen economy. The analysis shows that CSP is an economically viable supplementary energy source for high base load scenarios, particularly when considering methanol production. Further single CSP-PV hybrid systems have economic advantages in regions with abundant solar resources compared to wind power plants. However, in most cases, hybrid systems combining wind and solar technologies (CSP and PV) outperform single CSP-PV hybrid systems.
The appendix can be accessed here.
