Opportunities for hydrogen production in connection with wind power in weak grids Magnus Korp˚ as a,∗ Christopher J. Greiner b a SINTEF Energy Research, NO-7465 Trondheim, Norway b Dept. of Electrical Power Engineering, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, NO-7491, Trondheim, Norway Abstract This paper gives an overview of the opportunities that exist for combining wind power and hydrogen (H 2 ) production in weak grids. It is described how H 2 storage can be applied in both isolated and grid-connected systems, and how the produced H 2 can be utilized for stationary energy supply and/or as a fuel for transportation. The paper discusses the benefits and limitations of the different H 2 storage applications, and presents a logistic simulation model for performance evaluation of wind-H 2 plants. A case study simulating the use of excess wind power in a weak distribution grid to produce H 2 for vehicles has been presented. It is shown that the penetration of wind power can be significantly increased by introducing electrolytic H 2 production as a controllable load. The results also indicate that there are large benefits of using the grid as backup for H 2 production in periods with low wind speed, regarding the H 2 storage sizing and the electrolyser operating conditions. Key words: wind power, hydrogen, weak grid, electrolysis, logistic simulation Preprint submitted to Renewable Energy 22 June 2007