I presented my paper; A Financial Worksheet for Computing the Levelized Cost (US$/gasoline gallon Equivalent) of Hydrogen "Vehicle Fuel" generated at a Model Wind Electric Powered Hydrogen Electrolyzer Plant, at the American Solar Energy’ Society’s SOLAR 2003 Convention, June 21-26, 2003, in Austin, TX.

CONSULTATIONS IN CHICAGO

If you did not have not have time to meet with me in Austin, TX or if you did not attend the Solar 2003 Convention, you can arrange an appointment at my office in Chicago.

Chicago has great hotels and restaurants. It is convenient to fly to Chicago from all over the planet.

I am a fee based consulting energy economist in private practice.

This paper is written in response to the August, 2002 Journal of Solar Energy Engineering Discussion Paper, Comments Dealing with Fuel Cell Energy Policy and Renewable Energy. Kreith and Isler’s major comment was that "with current available technologies from natural gas, the use of hydrogen fuel cells in automobiles will actually increase the generation of greenhouse gases unless the hydrogen was produced by electrolysis using electric power generated from non-polluting sources such as solar thermal or wind". These authors’ position was it was becoming "more important to place serious R&D effort on reducing the cost of producing hydrogen vehicle fuel from solar sources that produce less greenhouse gases than fossil fuels".

In this paper, the financial worksheet from my August, 2002 Journal of Solar Energy Engineering  Technical Brief, "A Financial Worksheet for Computing The Cost (¢/kWh) of Solar Electricity Generated at a Grid Connected Photovoltaic (PV) Generating Plant" has been reorganized to compute the levelized cost per gasoline gallon equivalent of hydrogen vehicle fuel generated from wind electricity.

The paper includes the worksheet, "Levelized Cost (US$/gasoline gallon equivalent) of Hydrogen Vehicle Fuel Generated by a Model 1 MW Rated Wind Electric Powered Electrolyzer Plant" with benchmark values for the independent variables. The benchmark values are for a model plant located in Iowa.

The paper discusses these benchmark values and the worksheet algorithm as it analyzes the worksheet’s constants: 1 MW electrolyzer power rating, energy conversion constant of 36.65 kWh/gasoline gallon, 100% plant availability factor; independent variables: electrolyzer capital cost-US$/MW, cost of capital-%, physical life-yr, electrolyzer hydrogen generation efficiency-%, fixed and variable O & M cost; and the dependent variable: levelized cost (US$/gasoline gallon equivalent) of hydrogen vehicle fuel generated.

The number of gasoline gallons equivalent of hydrogen generated per year equals the quotient of the MWh per year that the electrolyzer consumes divided by the constant, MWh per gasoline gallon equivalent, times the electricity to hydrogen electrolyzer efficiency per cent. The cost of the wind electric energy used to generate one gasoline gallon equivalent of hydrogen equals the product of the cost of the wind electricity per MWh times the constant, MWh per gasoline gallon equivalent, divided by the electricity to hydrogen electrolyzer efficiency per cent.

The benchmark values for the paper’s model electrolyzer are: US$ 800,000 per MW (US$ 800/kW) electrolyzer capital cost, 10% cost of capital (interest/ROI), $35 per MWh wind electricity cost, 25 year physical life, 70% electricity to hydrogen electrolyzer efficiency, US$ 24,000 a year annual fixed O & M cost (3% of the electrolyzer’s capital cost) and 10 cents per gallon equivalent variable O & M cost.

The benchmark values result is a levelized cost of US$ 2.60 a gasoline gallon equivalent for hydrogen vehicle fuel verse a December 9, 2002 spot wholesale price of US$ 0.80/gallon for unleaded premium gasoline. The benchmark values are optimistic to encourage Kreith and Isler’s goal of "serious R&D effort on reducing the cost of producing hydrogen vehicle fuel from solar sources that produce less greenhouse gases than fossil fuels"

To check the progress of the nation’s R&D effort, the reader can replace the worksheet benchmark values with his/her own independent variable values and compute his/her own levelized cost (US$/gasoline gallon equivalent) of wind generated hydrogen vehicle fuel.

February 1, 2003 Abstract as a "Mini-Paper" subject to change. 

October 21, 2004

                   Fuel Cell Vehicle