Economic evaluation of grid-connected fuel-cell systems

Author

Nelson, Don B. ; Nehrir, M. Hashem ; Gerez, Victor

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Montana State Univ., Bozeman, MT, USA

Volume

20

Issue

2

fYear

2005

fDate

6/1/2005 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

452

Lastpage

458

Abstract

An assessment of the economic benefits of using fuel cells is presented. A calculation of the cost of electricity generated from a fuel-cell installation, and a determination of the amount of profit that might result from an installation is given. A break even and sensitivity analysis is also conducted to determine what goals need to be achieved to make fuel cells competitive with conventional power generation sources. The study was performed using a graphical user interface programmed in MATLAB.

Keywords

fuel cell power plants; graphical user interfaces; power engineering computing; power generation economics; sensitivity analysis; MATLAB programming; economic evaluation; fuel cell installation; graphical user interface; grid connected fuel cell system; sensitivity analysis; Costs; Environmental economics; Fossil fuels; Fuel cells; Fuel economy; Graphical user interfaces; Power generation; Power generation economics; Power system economics; Sensitivity analysis; Economic evaluation; fuel cells; graphical user interface (GUI);

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Energy Conversion, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0885-8969

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TEC.2005.847969

Filename

1432860