Economic and financial analysis of projects: renewable energy and energy efficiency

• Autor(a) principal: Peixoto, Alberto Rafael Silva
• Data de Publicação: 2021
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10773/33761
• topic: Energy; Greenhouse gas emissions; Hydrogen economy; Sustainability; Water electrolysis

The growing demand for energy, the emission of greenhouse gases, global warming, and consequently climate change are important issues regarding the sustainability of our planet. An important part of solving this problem can arise from the use of hydrogen. This dissertation seeks to carry out an economic feasibility study to produce hydrogen in Portugal through renewable energy in a self-consumption regime. Firstly, a literature review was carried out on the current global context regarding energy and sustainability, focusing on the framework of hydrogen in the global, European, and Portuguese economy and its opportunities, challenges, current and future uses. A cost perspective is highlighted throughout the value chain, as this is one of the main impediments to developing a global economy based on hydrogen. Subsequently, an analysis of the economic feasibility of hydrogen production in Portugal was carried out, considering the necessary equipment and its cost. Since the study is carried out through self-consumption of electricity from renewable sources, to carry out a sensitivity analysis, it was studied in four different locations, to analyze the impact of the location where the project will be implemented. The impact of different fundings sources was also simulated. The findings revealed that the availability of renewable energy resources has a significant impact on the cost of hydrogen generation and that the site chosen is critical for the project's economic sustainability. They also revealed that without external funding, it is unfeasible to create a hydrogen production center with competitive costs and a return on investment of fewer than ten years. In the best scenario, 100% solar energy with an external investment of 70% in Faro, it is expected a payback inferior to five years and a net present value between €682,403 and €476,640 over a period of 10 years.