A technical, economic, and environmental assessment of the production of renewable hydrogen from wind in California

his thesis seeks to evaluate one potential approach to facilitating increased renewable penetration and alternative fuel production, the use of wind power in the production of hydrogen for transportation. To fully assess this approach, technical, economic, and environmental impacts are evaluated using a Renewable Hydrogen Technical, Economic, and Environmental Model (RHPTEEM). The RHPTEEM model is used to evaluate scenarios for two California regions, looking out to the year 2030.;The technical considerations of evaluating the use of wind electricity to generate hydrogen involve evaluation of wind resource profiles and electricity grid demands, the evaluation of electrolyzers and balance of plant required for hydrogen compression and storage, and the evaluation of the use of hydrogen pipelines and the electricity grid to turn remote wind electricity into hydrogen dispensed in central metropolitan demand centers.;Findings from the technical assessment indicate that there exists a significant amount of wind resource potential that if developed, is likely to create large surpluses of wind electricity during times of the day where it is less desirable for use directly in the electricity grid. In particular, both the Solano and Tehachapi resource areas experience their highest capacity factors in the summer months between 11 PM and 5 AM, which correspond with the lowest demand hours on the electricity grid for both regions. The state of electrolysis units today would allow conversion of that electricity at approximately 70% efficiency to hydrogen, though future improvements could bring this efficiency upwards towards 80 to 85%. The electricity grid provides the preferred transportation option for the wind electricity until such time as hydrogen demand reaches nearly 1,000,000 vehicles in a particular region, at which time, construction of a pipeline to provide the hydrogen from electrolyzers sited at the wind farm would make sense.;The economics of producing hydrogen from wind electricity depend heavily on the capacity factor of the electrolyzer and the price of the electricity that is used in the electrolyzer. In the near term, for electrolyzer capacity factors above 60%, electricity price is the primary driver. As electrolyzer prices decline, lower capacity factors can be achieved, and once capital costs drop below ;In looking specifically at Southern and Northern California scenarios for utilization of hydrogen, it appears that a significant number of vehicles could be fueled by surplus wind electricity based hydrogen in both regions by 2030. In Southern California, the surplus wind electricity from an installed capacity of 8,000 MW of Southern California wind turbines could result in enough hydrogen for 350,000 vehicles in 2030, and if the electolyzer capacity was operated at maximum capacity factors using grid electricity to supplement, would be enough hydrogen for 760,000 vehicles. For the Sacramento region, the surplus electricity produced during off-peak hours could provide fuel for between 15,000 to 34,000 vehicles depending on whether the electrolyzers used wind electricity only, or whether they used a mixture of wind and grid electricity.;Hydrogen production would be expected to remain distributed until vehicle fleets approaching 1,000,000 vehicles were achieved, sometime between 2030 and 2040 in Southern California, and somewhat later than that in Sacramento. The expected costs of hydrogen would be driven almost entirely by electricity prices, as the electrolyzer prices fall from nearly...