Author(s)

Akira Nishimura¹, Syota Tanikaga¹, Masafumi Hirota¹, Eric Hu²

¹Division of Mechanical Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, Mie University, Tsu, Japan.
²School of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia.

An integrated energy system (with photovoltaic (PV) and fuel cell (FC) for building) is proposed and assessed in term of its energy self-sufficiency rate in seven cities (Nagoya, Toyota, Tajimi, Takayama, Ogaki, Hamamatsu, Shizuoka) in Tokai region in Japan in this paper. In this work, it is considered that the electricity requirement of the building for household users is provided by a building integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) system and the gap between the energy demand and BIPV supply is fulfilled by the FC. The FC is powered by the electrolytic H₂ produced when PV power was in surplus. Based on the study of applying the proposed system in seven cities, which clarifies the effectiveness of the integrated BIPV, electrolytic H₂ and FC power generation system, a universal system model has been developed in this paper. It has been observed that the monthly power production from BIPV as well as FC system are higher in spring and summer, while they are both lower in autumn and winter at all considered locations. The self-sufficiency rate of the FC system is higher with decreasing households’ number and it has been observed that 16 is the most appropriate number of households in a building, whose electricity demand could be fully covered by the integrated PV and FC system. Due to its climate condition, Hamamatsu is the best city in the region for installing the proposed system. The correlation between the households’ number and self-sufficiency rate of the FC system per solar PV installation area can be expressed by the regression curve in the form of y = ax^-b well.

Smart Building, Photovoltaics, H₂ Produced by Water Electrolysis, Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cell, Self-Sufficiency Rate

Nishimura, A. , Tanikaga, S. , Hirota, M. and Hu, E. (2018) Energy Characteristics of an Integrated Power Generation System with Photovoltaic and Fuel Cell. Smart Grid and Renewable Energy, 9, 57-73. doi: 10.4236/sgre.2018.94005.