IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/zbw/espost/237374.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Optimal supply chains and power sector benefits of green hydrogen

Author

Listed:
  • Stöckl, Fabian
  • Schill, Wolf-Peter
  • Zerrahn, Alexander

Abstract

Green hydrogen can help to decarbonize parts of the transportation sector, but its power sector interactions are not well understood so far. It may contribute to integrating variable renewable energy sources if production is sufficiently flexible in time. Using an open-source co-optimization model of the power sector and four options for supplying hydrogen at German filling stations, we find a trade-off between energy efficiency and temporal flexibility. For lower shares of renewables and hydrogen, more energy-efficient and less flexible small-scale on-site electrolysis is optimal. For higher shares of renewables and/or hydrogen, more flexible but less energy-efficient large-scale hydrogen supply chains gain importance, as they allow to temporally disentangle hydrogen production from demand via storage. Liquid hydrogen emerges as particularly beneficial, followed by liquid organic hydrogen carriers and gaseous hydrogen. Large-scale hydrogen supply chains can deliver substantial power sector benefits, mainly through reduced renewable curtailment. Energy modelers and system planners should consider the distinct flexibility characteristics of hydrogen supply chains in more detail when assessing the role of green hydrogen in future energy transition scenarios. We also propose two alternative cost and emission metrics which could be useful in future analyses.

Suggested Citation

  • Stöckl, Fabian & Schill, Wolf-Peter & Zerrahn, Alexander, 2021. "Optimal supply chains and power sector benefits of green hydrogen," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 11.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:espost:237374
    DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-92511-6
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/237374/1/s41598-021-92511-6.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41598-021-92511-6?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Günther, Claudia & Schill, Wolf-Peter & Zerrahn, Alexander, 2021. "Prosumage of solar electricity: Tariff design, capacity investments, and power sector effects," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 152.
    2. Gunther Glenk & Stefan Reichelstein, 2019. "Publisher Correction: Economics of converting renewable power to hydrogen," Nature Energy, Nature, vol. 4(4), pages 347-347, April.
    3. Kondziella, Hendrik & Bruckner, Thomas, 2016. "Flexibility requirements of renewable energy based electricity systems – a review of research results and methodologies," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 10-22.
    4. Gils, Hans Christian & Simon, Sonja, 2017. "Carbon neutral archipelago – 100% renewable energy supply for the Canary Islands," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 188(C), pages 342-355.
    5. Say, Kelvin & Schill, Wolf-Peter & John, Michele, 2020. "Degrees of displacement: The impact of household PV battery prosumage on utility generation and storage," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 276(C).
    6. Eypasch, Martin & Schimpe, Michael & Kanwar, Aastha & Hartmann, Tobias & Herzog, Simon & Frank, Torsten & Hamacher, Thomas, 2017. "Model-based techno-economic evaluation of an electricity storage system based on Liquid Organic Hydrogen Carriers," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 185(P1), pages 320-330.
    7. Yang, Christopher & Ogden, Joan M, 2007. "Determining the lowest-cost hydrogen delivery mode," Institute of Transportation Studies, Working Paper Series qt1804p4vw, Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Davis.
    8. Gunther Glenk & Stefan Reichelstein, 2019. "Economics of converting renewable power to hydrogen," Nature Energy, Nature, vol. 4(3), pages 216-222, March.
    9. Ringkjøb, Hans-Kristian & Haugan, Peter M. & Solbrekke, Ida Marie, 2018. "A review of modelling tools for energy and electricity systems with large shares of variable renewables," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 440-459.
    10. O. Schmidt & A. Hawkes & A. Gambhir & I. Staffell, 2017. "The future cost of electrical energy storage based on experience rates," Nature Energy, Nature, vol. 2(8), pages 1-8, August.
    11. Yang, Christopher & Ogden, Joan M, 2007. "Determining the lowest-cost hydrogen delivery mode," Institute of Transportation Studies, Working Paper Series qt7p3500g2, Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Davis.
    12. Zhang, Cong & Greenblatt, Jeffery B. & Wei, Max & Eichman, Josh & Saxena, Samveg & Muratori, Matteo & Guerra, Omar J., 2020. "Flexible grid-based electrolysis hydrogen production for fuel cell vehicles reduces costs and greenhouse gas emissions," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 278(C).
    13. Schill, Wolf-Peter & Zerrahn, Alexander, 2020. "Flexible electricity use for heating in markets with renewable energy," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 266.
    14. Bogdanov, Dmitrii & Gulagi, Ashish & Fasihi, Mahdi & Breyer, Christian, 2021. "Full energy sector transition towards 100% renewable energy supply: Integrating power, heat, transport and industry sectors including desalination," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 283(C).
    15. Martin Robinius & Alexander Otto & Philipp Heuser & Lara Welder & Konstantinos Syranidis & David S. Ryberg & Thomas Grube & Peter Markewitz & Ralf Peters & Detlef Stolten, 2017. "Linking the Power and Transport Sectors—Part 1: The Principle of Sector Coupling," Energies, MDPI, vol. 10(7), pages 1-22, July.
    16. Hanley, Emma S. & Deane, JP & Gallachóir, BP Ó, 2018. "The role of hydrogen in low carbon energy futures–A review of existing perspectives," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 82(P3), pages 3027-3045.
    17. Brown, T. & Schlachtberger, D. & Kies, A. & Schramm, S. & Greiner, M., 2018. "Synergies of sector coupling and transmission reinforcement in a cost-optimised, highly renewable European energy system," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 160(C), pages 720-739.
    18. Hake, Jürgen-Friedrich & Fischer, Wolfgang & Venghaus, Sandra & Weckenbrock, Christoph, 2015. "The German Energiewende – History and status quo," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 92(P3), pages 532-546.
    19. Martin Robinius & Alexander Otto & Konstantinos Syranidis & David S. Ryberg & Philipp Heuser & Lara Welder & Thomas Grube & Peter Markewitz & Vanessa Tietze & Detlef Stolten, 2017. "Linking the Power and Transport Sectors—Part 2: Modelling a Sector Coupling Scenario for Germany," Energies, MDPI, vol. 10(7), pages 1-23, July.
    20. Brynolf, Selma & Taljegard, Maria & Grahn, Maria & Hansson, Julia, 2018. "Electrofuels for the transport sector: A review of production costs," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 81(P2), pages 1887-1905.
    21. Welder, Lara & Ryberg, D.Severin & Kotzur, Leander & Grube, Thomas & Robinius, Martin & Stolten, Detlef, 2018. "Spatio-temporal optimization of a future energy system for power-to-hydrogen applications in Germany," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 158(C), pages 1130-1149.
    22. Zerrahn, Alexander & Schill, Wolf-Peter, 2017. "Long-run power storage requirements for high shares of renewables: review and a new model," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 1518-1534.
    23. Schill, Wolf-Peter, 2020. "Electricity Storage and the Renewable Energy Transition," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 4(10), pages 2059-2064.
    24. Schill, Wolf-Peter & Zerrahn, Alexander, 2018. "Long-run power storage requirements for high shares of renewables: Results and sensitivities," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 156-171.
    25. Stefan Pfenninger, 2017. "Energy scientists must show their workings," Nature, Nature, vol. 542(7642), pages 393-393, February.
    26. Runge, Philipp & Sölch, Christian & Albert, Jakob & Wasserscheid, Peter & Zöttl, Gregor & Grimm, Veronika, 2019. "Economic comparison of different electric fuels for energy scenarios in 2035," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 233, pages 1078-1093.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ruhnau, Oliver & Schiele, Johanna, 2022. "Flexible green hydrogen: Economic benefits without increasing emissions," EconStor Preprints 253267, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    2. Ruhnau, Oliver & Schiele, Johanna, 2022. "Flexible green hydrogen: Economic benefits without increasing power sector emissions," EconStor Preprints 258999, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    3. Martin Kittel & Wolf-Peter Schill, 2021. "Renewable Energy Targets and Unintended Storage Cycling: Implications for Energy Modeling," Papers 2107.13380, arXiv.org, revised Sep 2021.
    4. Fengshuo Yu & Qinglai Guo & Jianzhong Wu & Zheng Qiao & Hongbin Sun, 2024. "Early warning and proactive control strategies for power blackouts caused by gas network malfunctions," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-14, December.
    5. Ma, Huan & Sun, Qinghan & Chen, Lei & Chen, Qun & Zhao, Tian & He, Kelun & Xu, Fei & Min, Yong & Wang, Shunjiang & Zhou, Guiping, 2023. "Cogeneration transition for energy system decarbonization: From basic to flexible and complementary multi-energy sources," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 187(C).
    6. Heinz Bekebrok & Hendrik Langnickel & Adam Pluta & Marco Zobel & Alexander Dyck, 2022. "Underground Storage of Green Hydrogen—Boundary Conditions for Compressor Systems," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(16), pages 1-16, August.
    7. Jorquera-Copier, Javier & Lorca, Álvaro & Sauma, Enzo & Lorenczik, Stefan & Negrete-Pincetic, Matías, 2024. "Impacts of different hydrogen demand levels and climate policy scenarios on the Chilean integrated hydrogen–electricity network," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 184(C).
    8. Carlos Gaete-Morales & Julius Johrens & Florian Heining & Wolf-Peter Schill, 2023. "Power sector effects of alternative options for de-fossilizing heavy-duty vehicles -- go electric, and charge smartly," Papers 2303.16629, arXiv.org, revised May 2024.
    9. Pierre, Cayet & Catherine, Azzaro-Pantel & Sylvain, Bourjade & Catherine, Muller-Vibes, 2024. "Beyond the “bottom-up” and “top-down” controversy: A methodological inquiry into hybrid modeling methods for hydrogen supply chains," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 268(C).
    10. Ruhnau, Oliver & Schiele, Johanna, 2023. "Flexible green hydrogen: The effect of relaxing simultaneity requirements on project design, economics, and power sector emissions," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 182(C).
    11. Carmona, Roberto & Miranda, Ricardo & Rodriguez, Pablo & Garrido, René & Serafini, Daniel & Rodriguez, Angel & Mena, Marcelo & Fernandez Gil, Alejandro & Valdes, Javier & Masip, Yunesky, 2024. "Assessment of the green hydrogen value chain in cases of the local industry in Chile applying an optimization model," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 300(C).
    12. Behrang Shirizadeh & Philippe Quirion, 2023. "Long-term optimization of the hydrogen-electricity nexus in France," Post-Print hal-04347126, HAL.
    13. Abadie, Luis Mª & Chamorro, José M., 2023. "Investment in wind-based hydrogen production under economic and physical uncertainties," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 337(C).
    14. Schlund, David & Theile, Philipp, 2021. "Simultaneity of green energy and hydrogen production: Analysing the dispatch of a grid-connected electrolyser," EWI Working Papers 2021-10, Energiewirtschaftliches Institut an der Universitaet zu Koeln (EWI).
    15. Shirizadeh, Behrang & Quirion, Philippe, 2023. "Long-term optimization of the hydrogen-electricity nexus in France: Green, blue, or pink hydrogen?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 181(C).
    16. Lee, Jason K. & Schuler, Tobias & Bender, Guido & Sabharwal, Mayank & Peng, Xiong & Weber, Adam Z. & Danilovic, Nemanja, 2023. "Interfacial engineering via laser ablation for high-performing PEM water electrolysis," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 336(C).
    17. Schlund, David & Theile, Philipp, 2022. "Simultaneity of green energy and hydrogen production: Analysing the dispatch of a grid-connected electrolyser," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 166(C).
    18. Blanco, Herib & Leaver, Jonathan & Dodds, Paul E. & Dickinson, Robert & García-Gusano, Diego & Iribarren, Diego & Lind, Arne & Wang, Changlong & Danebergs, Janis & Baumann, Martin, 2022. "A taxonomy of models for investigating hydrogen energy systems," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    19. Kirchem, Dana & Schill, Wolf-Peter, 2023. "Power sector effects of green hydrogen production in Germany," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 182(C).
    20. Johannes Brauer & Manuel Villavicencio & Johannes Trüby, 2022. "Green hydrogen – How grey can it be?," RSCAS Working Papers 2022/44, European University Institute.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kirchem, Dana & Schill, Wolf-Peter, 2023. "Power sector effects of green hydrogen production in Germany," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 182(C).
    2. Hoffmann, Maximilian & Priesmann, Jan & Nolting, Lars & Praktiknjo, Aaron & Kotzur, Leander & Stolten, Detlef, 2021. "Typical periods or typical time steps? A multi-model analysis to determine the optimal temporal aggregation for energy system models," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 304(C).
    3. Simonas Cerniauskas & Thomas Grube & Aaron Praktiknjo & Detlef Stolten & Martin Robinius, 2019. "Future Hydrogen Markets for Transportation and Industry: The Impact of CO 2 Taxes," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(24), pages 1-26, December.
    4. Østergaard, P.A. & Lund, H. & Thellufsen, J.Z. & Sorknæs, P. & Mathiesen, B.V., 2022. "Review and validation of EnergyPLAN," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 168(C).
    5. Javier L'opez Prol & Wolf-Peter Schill, 2020. "The Economics of Variable Renewables and Electricity Storage," Papers 2012.15371, arXiv.org.
    6. Hoffmann, Maximilian & Kotzur, Leander & Stolten, Detlef, 2022. "The Pareto-optimal temporal aggregation of energy system models," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 315(C).
    7. Davis, M. & Okunlola, A. & Di Lullo, G. & Giwa, T. & Kumar, A., 2023. "Greenhouse gas reduction potential and cost-effectiveness of economy-wide hydrogen-natural gas blending for energy end uses," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 171(C).
    8. Guannan He & Dharik S. Mallapragada & Abhishek Bose & Clara F. Heuberger & Emre Genc{c}er, 2021. "Sector coupling via hydrogen to lower the cost of energy system decarbonization," Papers 2103.03442, arXiv.org.
    9. van Ouwerkerk, Jonas & Gils, Hans Christian & Gardian, Hedda & Kittel, Martin & Schill, Wolf-Peter & Zerrahn, Alexander & Murmann, Alexander & Launer, Jann & Torralba-Díaz, Laura & Bußar, Christian, 2022. "Impacts of power sector model features on optimal capacity expansion: A comparative study," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    10. Reuß, Markus & Grube, Thomas & Robinius, Martin & Stolten, Detlef, 2019. "A hydrogen supply chain with spatial resolution: Comparative analysis of infrastructure technologies in Germany," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 247(C), pages 438-453.
    11. Blanco, Herib & Leaver, Jonathan & Dodds, Paul E. & Dickinson, Robert & García-Gusano, Diego & Iribarren, Diego & Lind, Arne & Wang, Changlong & Danebergs, Janis & Baumann, Martin, 2022. "A taxonomy of models for investigating hydrogen energy systems," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    12. Ortiz-Imedio, Rafael & Caglayan, Dilara Gulcin & Ortiz, Alfredo & Heinrichs, Heidi & Robinius, Martin & Stolten, Detlef & Ortiz, Inmaculada, 2021. "Power-to-Ships: Future electricity and hydrogen demands for shipping on the Atlantic coast of Europe in 2050," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 228(C).
    13. Maximilian Parzen & Fabian Neumann & Addrian H. Van Der Weijde & Daniel Friedrich & Aristides Kiprakis, 2021. "Beyond cost reduction: Improving the value of energy storage in electricity systems," Papers 2101.10092, arXiv.org, revised Jul 2022.
    14. Md. Nasimul Islam Maruf, 2021. "A Novel Method for Analyzing Highly Renewable and Sector-Coupled Subnational Energy Systems—Case Study of Schleswig-Holstein," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-24, March.
    15. Fabian Stöckl & Alexander Zerrahn, 2023. "Substituting Clean for Dirty Energy: A Bottom-Up Analysis," Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, University of Chicago Press, vol. 10(3), pages 819-863.
    16. Colbertaldo, P. & Cerniauskas, S. & Grube, T. & Robinius, M. & Stolten, D. & Campanari, S., 2020. "Clean mobility infrastructure and sector integration in long-term energy scenarios: The case of Italy," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    17. Morales-España, Germán & Martínez-Gordón, Rafael & Sijm, Jos, 2022. "Classifying and modelling demand response in power systems," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 242(C).
    18. Gils, Hans Christian & Gardian, Hedda & Kittel, Martin & Schill, Wolf-Peter & Zerrahn, Alexander & Murmann, Alexander & Launer, Jann & Fehler, Alexander & Gaumnitz, Felix & van Ouwerkerk, Jonas & Bußa, 2022. "Modeling flexibility in energy systems — comparison of power sector models based on simplified test cases," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    19. Fridgen, Gilbert & Keller, Robert & Körner, Marc-Fabian & Schöpf, Michael, 2020. "A holistic view on sector coupling," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 147(C).
    20. Haas, Jannik & Prieto-Miranda, Luis & Ghorbani, Narges & Breyer, Christian, 2022. "Revisiting the potential of pumped-hydro energy storage: A method to detect economically attractive sites," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 181(C), pages 182-193.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:zbw:espost:237374. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/zbwkide.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.