Multi-month and dynamic kilowatt-scale production of hydrogen using concentrated sunlight
- 1aLaboratory of Renewable Energy Science and Engineering, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.
- 2bSoHHytec SA, EPFL Innovation Park, Batiment C, Lausanne, 1015, Switzerland.
Abstract
The large-scale photo-electrochemical production of hydrogen (and oxygen) from water using concentrated sunlight is a promising route for producing fuels and chemicals from abundant and renewable energy sources. However, demonstrations of its ability to enable long-term and large-scale production, as well as evidence that the products can be produced flexibly and on-demand, are still needed. With our solar hydrogen facility, we introduce and demonstrate various operational strategies, including on-sun, grid-operated, and hybrid operation. We show the flexible long-term operation of such a system for over 992 hours, with a cumulative hydrogen production of 7.8 kg and 45.0 kg, originating from sunlight and grid-electricity, respectively. Average and peak hydrogen production during on-sun operation were 0.33 Nm3 h−1 (1.00 kW) and 0.54 Nm3 h−1 (1.59 kW), respectively. Performance degradation was below 10 mV per cell over a period of 411 hours. In addition, we demonstrate flexible operation of this device under dynamic irradiation conditions with a constant and controllable hydrogen output. This is achieved through the real-time adjusted supply of external electricity, potentially avoiding accelerated degradation, improving the capacity factor of the device, and allowing integration with a wider range of downstream processes.
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BibTeX
@article{armas2026multimonth,
title = {{Multi-month and dynamic kilowatt-scale production of hydrogen using concentrated sunlight}},
author = {Guilherme Armas and Ehsan Rezaei and Nathaniel Mutrux and Isaac Holmes-Gentle and Saurabh Tembhurne and Sophia Haussener},
journal = {EES Solar},
year = {2026},
month = aug,
doi = {10.1039/d6el00071a},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1039/d6el00071a},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Multi-month and dynamic kilowatt-scale production of hydrogen using concentrated sunlight
AU - Guilherme Armas
AU - Ehsan Rezaei
AU - Nathaniel Mutrux
AU - Isaac Holmes-Gentle
AU - Saurabh Tembhurne
AU - Sophia Haussener
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/08/01
JO - EES Solar
DO - 10.1039/d6el00071a
UR - https://doi.org/10.1039/d6el00071a
AB - The large-scale photo-electrochemical production of hydrogen (and oxygen) from water using concentrated sunlight is a promising route for producing fuels and chemicals from abundant and renewable energy sources. However, demonstrations of its ability to enable long-term and large-scale production, as well as evidence that the products can be produced flexibly and on-demand, are still needed. With our solar hydrogen facility, we introduce and demonstrate various operational strategies, including on-sun, grid-operated, and hybrid operation. We show the flexible long-term operation of such a system for over 992 hours, with a cumulative hydrogen production of 7.8 kg and 45.0 kg, originating from sunlight and grid-electricity, respectively. Average and peak hydrogen production during on-sun operation were 0.33 Nm3 h−1 (1.00 kW) and 0.54 Nm3 h−1 (1.59 kW), respectively. Performance degradation was below 10 mV per cell over a period of 411 hours. In addition, we demonstrate flexible operation of this device under dynamic irradiation conditions with a constant and controllable hydrogen output. This is achieved through the real-time adjusted supply of external electricity, potentially avoiding accelerated degradation, improving the capacity factor of the device, and allowing integration with a wider range of downstream processes.
SN - 3033-4063
ER -