Floating Photovoltaic-Powered Green Hydrogen for Decarbonization of the Energy-Consuming Sectors in the United Kingdom

This study evaluates the potential of integrating floating photovoltaic (FPV) systems with green hydrogen production on UK reservoirs to support decarbonization across electricity, heating, and transport sectors. PVsyst was used to simulate annual electricity generation for monofacial and bifacial systems at Killington reservoir and Drift reservoir, while HOMER Pro was used to model hydrogen production via electrolysis and its potential applications. Results indicate that maximum FPV deployment could generate approximately 61 GWh/year at Killington and 20 GWh/year at Drift. Surplus electricity during peak production enables PEM electrolysis, producing up to 869,149 kg/year and 185,277 kg/year of hydrogen for the bifacial systems, respectively. This hydrogen could alternatively deliver up to 9.216 GWh/year and 1.977 GWh/year of electricity or 26.071 GWh/year and 5.558 GWh/year of heat, or support approximately 1,225,808 km/year and 454,550 km/year of hydrogen-powered transport. Additional co-location benefits include significant reductions in reservoir evaporation, estimated at 1.96 million m3/year for Killington and 452,037 m3/year for Drift. Overall, the findings demonstrate that hydrogen integrated FPV systems represent a promising system configuration under idealized deployment conditions, with location-specific modeling providing a UK-specific multi-sector assessment of the low-carbon potential of reservoir-based energy systems. The hydrogen use cases presented are alternative applications of the total hydrogen produced and are not intended to occur simultaneously.