Al Khobar hydrogen city - A fully connected ecosystem powered by hydrogen.

This study considers the option to build a hydrogen city in Al Khobar, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and analyzes the hydrogen storage characteristic to develop a net zero energy system only powered by wind and solar generators. The size of the hydrogen energy storage is estimated based on seasonal variability. Larger estimations may follow the interannual variability, which unfortunately is more difficult to predict. A 1.3 GW installed capacity of wind and solar could permit delivery of dispatchable electricity to the grid at an average electricity power of 0.2 GW, plus production of fuel to cover other non-electric energy uses of 0.07 GW average fuel power. While 0.145 TWh of hydrogen energy storage would be required to deal with seasonal variability, up to 5 times this amount may be necessary to manage interannual and decadal variability, coupled with 0.645 GW of electrolyzer capacity and 0.5 GW of hydrogen energy generators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]