Wind Turbine Design Optimization for Hydrogen Production

To help meet the need for inexpensive green hydrogen, a framework for wind turbine design optimization specifically for hydrogen production has been developed. This framework optimizes wind turbines by minimizing a levelized cost of hydrogen (LCOH) objective. Preliminary case study results show a 12.7% decrease in LCOH compared to a baseline reference wind turbine designed using a traditional method of minimizing the levelized cost of energy (LCOE) and a 1.53% decrease in LCOH when compared to an LCOE optimized turbine using our framework. The LCOH optimized turbine has a larger rotor compared to the baseline and LCOE optimized turbines, where the increased turbine cost is offset by increased hydrogen production. This case study focuses on a single wind turbine-electrolyzer system, demonstrating that significant cost savings can be achieved by using new optimization objectives. Further cost savings may be had with plant-level optimizations and by including other technologies such as solar panels and battery storage.