Sustainable hydrogen refuelling stations: techno-financial viability across Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) numbers SDG 7, SDG 9, SDG 11, SDG 12 and SDG13, this study proposes a model of autonomous hydrogen refuelling stations installed on 20 Saudi cities powered by renewable resources. The station is supplied with photovoltaic (PV) panels and wind turbines involving an electrolyser and hydrogen tank for producing and storing hydrogen. Three scenarios are simulated proposing the optimised model by combining the (PV–wind–battery) components. The modelling process demonstrates an extremely competitive levelised cost of energy (LCOE) and levelised cost of hydrogen (LCOH), especially for the third scenario solely based on PV power with an LCOH varying within $12–15.9/kg and LCOE in the range of $0.332–0.414/kWh, for all 20 sites. Furthermore, encouraging lower values of net present cost (NPC) and LCOE are obtained for the futuristic NEOM city for Scenario 3 with NPC = $830 494 and LCOE = $0.332/kWh. On the other hand, replacing conventional gasoline vehicles with hydrogen fuel cell vehicles can significantly reduce CO2 emissions, with cost per kilometre for the hydrogen fuel cell car in ranges of $0.0362/km–$0.0370/km, $0.0306/km–$0.0931/km and $0.0191/km to $0.0241/km, according to Scenario 1, 2 and 3, respectively.