Optimal design and performance assessment for a solar powered electricity, heating and hydrogen integrated energy system

Incorporating solar energy technologies into integrated energy systems (IES) plays an increasingly important role to mitigate energy supply shortages and climate challenges. However, the low efficiency of solar energy utilization and land limitation for system deployment greatly restrict the development of the solar powered IESs. In this paper, a solar powered electricity, heating and hydrogen IES based on photovoltaic (PV), photothermal (PT) and photocatalysis of hydrogen production (PH) is proposed and investigated. The system comprises solar radiation spectrum splitting technology, PV, PT, PH, electric heating device, compressive heat pump, solid oxide fuel cell, absorption heat pump and energy storage components. A component sizing method based on a region contraction algorithm is employed to find the system optimal design with minimizing the cost of energy. Two scenarios of the solar powered IES based on solar spectrum splitting unit and independent energy supply unit are analyzed and compared. The results show that the solar powered IES can completely meet the electricity, heating and hydrogen energy demands and achieve cost savings for consumers. Compared to independent energy supply unit-based IES, the use of solar spectrum splitting unit can significantly improve the total energy efficiency by 21.74% and reduce the land area for solar capture by 52.5%, but increase the cost of energy by 27.3%. •A solar powered electricity, heating and hydrogen IES is proposed.•The mathematical model for system component sizing is built.•Techno-economic assessment of the solar powered IES is conducted.•Two scenarios with and without solar spectrum splitting unit are compared.