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This page describes the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's (NREL) research in renewable electrolysis, a process that uses renewable energy to produce hydrogen through the electrolysis of water.
Wind turbines can be used to produce hydrogen through a process called renewable electrolysis. Renewable energy sources such as photovoltaics, wind, biomass, hydropower, and geothermal can provide clean and sustainable electricity for our nation—contributing nearly 10% to the U.S. electricity supply today.
Factors that limit greater use of these renewable technologies include their inherent variability and seasonal energy production. One solution to this problem is to use renewable energy to produce hydrogen through the electrolysis of water, known as renewable electrolysis. This hydrogen can be used in a fuel cell or internal combustion engine to produce electricity during times of low power production or peak demand. It can also be used as a transportation fuel.
Barriers and Solutions
Currently, renewable electrolysis is hindered by the difficulty of producing hydrogen from these renewable sources in a cost-competitive manner. To realize the potential of renewable electrolysis, the costs of renewable technologies as well as the capital requirements for electrolyzers must be lowered, and renewable electrolysis systems must be optimized for use with electrolyzers.
Research Focus
To understand the basic principles of renewable electrolysis systems, NREL conducts systems engineering, modeling, and analysis. Researchers develop concept platforms, develop and validate component and system models, and design system assessment and optimization tools.
This research examines issues related to using renewable energy to produce hydrogen by electrolyzing water. Efforts focus on:
- Characterizing electrolyzer performance under variable input power conditions
- Designing and developing shared power electronics packages and controllers to reduce cost and optimize system performance
- Identifying opportunities for system cost reductions through breakthroughs in component integration
- Testing, evaluating, and optimizing the renewable electrolysis system performance for both hydrogen production and electricity/hydrogen cogeneration
Areas of Expertise
NREL has expertise in the following areas:
Learn about the wind-to-hydrogen (Wind2H2) project, which links wind turbines to electrolyzers that pass the wind-generated electricity through water to split the liquid into hydrogen and oxygen.
Related Publications
Some of the following documents are available as Adobe Acrobat PDFs. Download Adobe Reader.
- Electrolysis: Information and Opportunities for Electric Power Utilities (PDF 1.3 MB)
- Wind Energy and Production of Hydrogen and Electricity—Opportunities for Renewable Hydrogen (PDF 1.1 MB)
- Renewable Electrolysis Integrated System Development and Testing (PDF 941 KB)
- Characterizing Electrolyzer Performance for Use in Wind Energy Applications (PDF 814 KB)
- Summary of Electrolytic Hydrogen Production (PDF 720 KB)
For more information, contact Kevin Harrison at (303) 384-7091 or Ben Kroposki at (303) 275-2979.
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