Design, modeling and implementation of fuel cell-solar cell hybrid system for residential loads

In recent years, renewable energy sources such as solar, hydrogen, wind and so on have become more popular with the global warming and depletion of fossil fuels. Especially, hydrogen and solar energy have been used together in hybrid system for energy generation. Produced energy depending on weather conditions is needed to store for photovoltaic systems. Lifetime of batteries used in such systems is short as well as has a maintenance costs. Therefore the use of solar cells with fuel cells is one of the preferred methods. Thus, energy demand can be supplied exploiting clean energy sources without interruption. In the first stage of this study, off-grid hybrid system with fuel cell-solar cell using solar energy to obtain hydrogen were simulated and analysed for different loads. Then, prototype of the fuel cell-solar cell off-grid hybrid system developed for residence was carried out. In this system, the energy demand has been provided from PV system when the sun is enough. Insufficient sunlight during the daytime and overnight, interrupted power has been provided by the fuel cell. Different power lamps were used as the load in the experimental study. The experimental results of output voltage and load current were analysed using data logger and LabVIEW interface. A simulation system closed to the experimental system has been designed in Matlab-Simulink. Load analysis of the hybrid system has been performed with comparing simulation and experimental results.