Hybrid solutions - solar meet fuel cell
Energy
Information
A fuel cell generates electricity using an electrochemical reaction, not combustion. During the day, solar panels can provide electricity to a facility while also splitting water into hydrogen, which can be used as energy storage medium for later use in the fuel cell.
Fuel cells are a remarkable power source to complement solar cells. They store energy in two naturally occurring elements (oxygen and hydrogen, which are already in our atmosphere) and form a single waste product (pure water).
In fuel cell-PV solutions, fuel cells act as back-up, supplementary and even take over power generation when solar cells fails, during nights and in areas, challenged by the cycling of monsoons.
Ad Advent, we have a customer example of such a hybrid with partner ACCL (click here to see case). The hybrid consists of fuel cells and solar panels where the system operates at night after the sun sets, cools down when the sun rises, and re-starts charging on the solar batteries. During the 6-8 weeks monsoon season, the fuel cells generate power more than 24 or 48 hours continuous. In the given example, 4* 1000 l IBC tanks, provides around 900 hours of fuel-cell run-time.
Learn more: https://serene.advent.energy/cases/solar-energy-meets-fuel-cell/
