An experimental and modelling study of a photovoltaic/proton-exchange membrane electrolyser system

An experimental model of a photovoltaic (PV) module-proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyser system has been built. A model has been developed for each device separately based on the experimental results. Output current–voltage (I–V) characteristics of the PV module are modelled in respect to different irradiance and temperature conditions by experimental tests. Similarly, input I–V characteristic and hydrogen formation characteristic of the PEM electrolyser are measured and modelled. After these studies, combined PV module–PEM electrolyser system model is defined. There is a good agreement between model predictions and measurements. At 18–100% irradiance interval, operating points of PEM electrolyser on the PV module are predicted with relative errors of 0.1–0.8%. Furthermore, the study shows that these simple model system devices can easily be defined in MATLAB/Simulink and used to model similar systems of different size.