On the use of supercapacitors within stand-alone energy systems

• Author(s): Simões, João ; Coelho, Miguel ; Fernandes, Vitor R. ; Rangel, C. M. ; Martins, J. F. ; Rodrigues, Leão
• Date: 2009
• Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.9/898
• Origin: Repositório do LNEG
• Subject(s): Renewable energies; Stand-alone systems; Fuel-cells; Batteries; Supercapacitors
• Document Type: Conference Object
• Language: English

Description

Hydrogen is a valuable alternative for long-term energy storage, particularly for renewable energy based stand-alone systems. The described stand-alone system has been developed and installed at the INETI facilities. The exceeding renewable energy (provided by sun and wind) is used to generate hydrogen, which accumulated as an energy buffer, while the fuel cell uses this stored hydrogen to produce electrical energy when there is insufficient solar/wind energy. To provide the stand-alone system with a reliable energy storage it was designed a system for storing hydrogen based on metal hydrides. In order to supply sudden power demands two options were considered: a standard DC battery bank and a supercapacitor bank. Experimental and simulation results are presented in order to show the installation obtained performance.