Potential and economic viability of green hydrogen production by water electrolysis using wind energy resources in South Africa T.R. Ayodele * , J.L. Munda Department of Electrical Engineering, Tshwane University of Technology, Pretoria, South Africa article info Article history: Received 27 March 2019 Received in revised form 9 May 2019 Accepted 11 May 2019 Available online xxx Keywords: Hydrogen production Wind energy Water electrolysis Economic analysis South Africa abstract In recent times, more attention is given to renewable and clean energy sources that could ameliorate the current shortage of electricity plaguing South Africa. Due to the comparable use of hydrogen to fossil fuel in the transportation, industrial and electricity sector, hydrogen could be a potential solution to the current energy crises especially when pro- duced from a clean and sustainable source. One of the most appropriate methods of green hydrogen production is the use of wind energy via water electrolysis. This paper therefore investigates the capability and viability of hydrogen production from the wind energy re- sources of South Africa using the actual wind speed obtained at 60 m anemometer height. Sensitivity analyses are also conducted to gain insight into the possible influences of wind turbine operating parameters on the cost of hydrogen production. Wind regime of fifteen (15) different sites across five (5) major provinces are analysed for possible wind-hydrogen production using eleven (11) different off-the-shelf wind turbines ranging from small to large categories. Some of the key results revealed that the mean wind speed (V m ) varies from 5.07 m/s in Eston (S12) to 8.10 m/s in Napier (S5). Wind turbine WT 9 (ServionSE MM100) with rated wind power of 2 MW, cut-in wind speed of 2 m/s, rated wind speed of 11 m/s, cut-out wind speed of 22 m/s and turbine hub-height of 100 m has the highest capacity factor (Cf) across all the sites with the values that range from 24.04% in Eston (S12) to 54.55% in Napier. Site S5 presents the best hydrogen production potential with annual hydrogen production that ranges between 6.51 metric-tons with turbine WT 1 and 226.82 metric-tons of hydrogen with turbine WT 11 . Wind turbine WT 9 has the least cost of elec- tricity generation ranging from 0.23$/kwh at site S5 to 0.42 $/kwh at site S13. Also, the cost of hydrogen is lowest at site S5 and ranges between 39.55 $/kg using wind turbine WT 1 and 1.4 $/kg using wind turbine WT 11. The sensitivity analysis conducted revealed that rated wind speed has significant effect on the cost of hydrogen production compared to other wind turbine parameters. © 2019 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. * Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: tayodele2001@yahoo.com (T.R. Ayodele), MundaJL@tut.ac.za (J.L. Munda). Available online at www.sciencedirect.com ScienceDirect journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/he international journal of hydrogen energy xxx (xxxx) xxx https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2019.05.077 0360-3199/© 2019 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Please cite this article as: Ayodele TR, Munda JL, Potential and economic viability of green hydrogen production by water electrolysis using wind energy resources in South Africa, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2019.05.077