Assessment of Wind-to-Hydrogen Production via Electrolysis: A Case Study in Morocco

Abstract

In response to green hydrogen roadmap where Morocco expects a demand of 14 TWh by 2030, the present work studies the potential of green hydrogen production in the windiest sites via electrolysis. Nine sites belonging to the windiest areas of Morocco were selected, where the average wind speed exceeds 6 m/s. The purpose is to identify the best site that will allow to met the hydrogen demand with a competitive levelized cost of hydrogen (LCOH). To accomplish this, the methodology adopted considers first a diagnosis of the operational onshore wind farms. Then, with the help of the Weibull distribution generated from WindPro software and using mathematical models, the best site for hydrogen production was identified as the exemplary site and energy savings were calculated referring to this site. Finally, the economic study was carried out to determine the levelized cost of energy (LCOE) as well as the LCOH. The results demonstrated that the site of Tetouan provides a high wind potential with a significant capacity factor of 55%.The required capacity to install in order to reach the hydrogen demand is about 7 GW. The economic evaluation revealed  a LCOE up to 0.029 $/kWh and the LCOH reaches 1.86 $/kgH₂.