Perspectives of hydrogen automotive applications in Croatia

Abstract

Observed and expected changes in the global climate system due to the increasing concentrations of the greenhouse gasses (GHG), mostly carbon dioxide (CO2) are the main motivation for research on how application of new technology can help in reducing GHG emissions. This work focuses on the climate change analysis, transition of energy and transportation sector towards low carbon paradigm. As one of the most critical barriers to achieve 100 % renewable energy system is an intermittent nature of renewable energy sources such as solar and wind, demand for energy storage becomes important. At this point hydrogen technology can be applied. Given the intermittence of the weather conditions at the short term-scales, energy peaks from wind and solar energy can be used for the hydrogen production and stored for later use, e.g. hydrogen utilization in transport sector. This also provides more flexibility in power system network to offset production peaks to energy that can be utilized later. Hydrogen technologies and their applications are investigated worldwide, from the aspect of sustainable development, cleaner technologies, energy efficiency and energy savings. Here the focus was positioned to the transport sector as the highest energy consumer and polluter. Three different future scenarios were analyzed—estimated cases of 10 %, 50 %, and 75 % shift to the hydrogen fuel cells powered vehicles in Croatia until 2030. It is important to note that hydrogen as the fuel is clean as much as energy and processes used for its production are clean. To satisfy this claim, the use of renewable energy sources for hydrogen production via water electrolysis is strongly suggested. In Croatia there are approximately 1.9 million registered vehicles, including approximately 1.5 million passenger cars. To accomplish clean and environmentally friendly hydrogen production, calculations were performed for the systems that include the use of solar and/or wind energy, i.e. photovoltaic cells and/or wind turbines. Given results represent directions in the system development based on installed power of wind and solar energy, taking into account demands for hydrogen amounts in the transport sector. In order to understand the scale of future importance of hydrogen and its connection to the renewable energy, an amount of installed solar and wind power plants were estimated in order to satisfy 75 % shift to the hydrogen fuel cells powered vehicles in Croatia until 2030. Results were discussed, especially in the context of hydrogen serving as an energy carrier. Paper conclusions can help in rethinking and shaping transportation, energy policies and energy strategies either in Croatia or in any country worldwide.