Spatial analysis of hydrogen production from renewable energy sources for injection in natural gas grid. Canada case study

The purpose of the study is to localize sites for the production of hydrogen from renewable energy sources (RES) and its injection in the natural gas transport network. The study is performed with Geographic Information System (GIS) based analysis. The first step is the analysis of GIS data on RES potential power production in Canada, in particular for wind and solar PV. The results are extracted and the power potential obtained is transformed in potential production of hydrogen with electrolysis. The results are disposed on the map and spatial criteria are used to identify the production hubs. In particular the main criteria are the production potential and the distance of the sites from the natural gas network. Different analysis are performed by changing the quantity of hydrogen to produce to satisfy different levels of injection in the natural gas grid. The GIS software used in the analysis is ArcGis, in the ArcMap 10.6 version.