Hydrogen Data Pipeline – Ballena Station, La Guajira, Colombia

Pipeline for extracting, storing, and analyzing solar and wind resource data from NASA POWER API, applied to green hydrogen potential assessment in Ballena Station, La Guajira, Colombia.

Motivation

La Guajira has the highest solar and wind potential in Colombia. This project builds a reproducible data pipeline to support techno-economic analysis of green hydrogen production via electrolysis powered by renewable energy.

Data Source

• API: NASA POWER (https://power.larc.nasa.gov/)
• Parameters: Global Horizontal Irradiance (GHI), Air Temperature (T2M), Wind Speed at 10m (WS10M)
• Frequency: Daily
• Period: 2020–2026

Tech Stack

• Python (requests, pandas, psycopg2, python-dotenv)
• PostgreSQL
• NASA POWER API

Setup

1. Clone the repository

2. Create a virtual environment and install dependencies:

3. Copy .env.example to .env and fill in your PostgreSQL credentials

4. Run the database schema:

5. Run the extraction script:

Analysis Metrics

Run the analysis script to calculate the following metrics from the stored data: python src/analysis.py Solar Resource

• Monthly Solar Peak Hours (HSP): average and total GHI per month
• Monthly Capacity Factor: estimated PV system output assuming 80% efficiency

Wind Resource

• Monthly Wind Power Density (W/m²): calculated from average wind speed using P/A = 0.5 × ρ × v³

Solar-Wind Complementarity

• Good solar days (GHI ≥ 3 kWh/m²/day)
• Good wind days (wind speed ≥ 3.5 m/s)
• Days where wind compensates low solar irradiance
• Total renewable coverage percentage per month

Results are printed to console. La Guajira shows HSP between 5–7 kWh/m²/day and renewable coverage above 95% for most months, confirming strong potential for green hydrogen production via electrolysis.

Visualizations

Run the visualization script to generate charts saved to data/: python src/visualize.py Generated charts:

• hsp_monthly.png — Average monthly Solar Peak Hours across all years
• wind_power_density_monthly.png — Average monthly wind power density (W/m²)
• solar_wind_complementarity.png — Normalized solar and wind resources comparison

Key findings:

• Solar resource is stable year-round: 4.8–6.3 kWh/m²/day
• Wind resource is strong January–July (45–67 W/m²), drops August–October
• August–October is the critical period for hybrid system sizing and storage planning
• Solar is the dominant and most reliable resource for continuous electrolyzer operation

Green Hydrogen Production Model

This section estimates hydrogen production potential and operational costs for three electrolyzer technologies, using the solar and wind resource data collected for La Guajira.

Electrolyzer Technologies Compared

Parameter	Alkaline (AWE)	PEM	SOEC
Efficiency	60–78%	65–80%	84–89%
Consumption (kWh/kg H₂)	49–50	52–55	37–40
CAPEX (USD/kW)	800–1,200	1,000–1,400	High, still in development
Stack lifetime (hours)	80,000–90,000	60,000–80,000	20,000–40,000
Operating temperature	70–90°C	50–80°C	700–850°C
Renewable flexibility	Medium	High	Low
TRL	9	9	6–7
Literature LCOH benchmark	4.09 €/kg	4.99 €/kg	6.08 €/kg

Sources:

• Nel Hydrogen A-Series (Alkaline): https://nelhydrogen.com/product/atmospheric-alkaline-electrolyser-a-series/
• Siemens Energy Silyzer 300 (PEM): https://assets.siemens-energy.com/siemens/assets/api/uuid:a193b68f-7ab4-4536-abe2-c23e01d0b526/datasheet-silyzer300.pdf
• Sunfire HyLink SOEC: https://sunfire.de/en/products/sunfire-hylink-soec/
• LCOH techno-economic review (2025): https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261925012450

Model Assumptions

• System size: 20 MW reference electrolyzer (10 MW solar + 10 MW wind)
• Solar PV efficiency: 80% (typical system losses)
• Wind turbine efficiency: 35%, 1 m² swept area per kW installed (small-scale reference)
• LCOE Solar: 0.05 USD/kWh
• LCOE Wind: 0.04 USD/kWh

LCOE assumptions based on IRENA's solar and wind zoning assessment for Colombia: https://solarquarter.com/2025/06/16/colombia-unveils-1600-gw-renewable-energy-potential-through-irenas-solar-and-wind-zoning-assessment/

Results

Annual Energy Potential (20 MW system):

• Solar: ~14.5 GWh/year
• Wind: ~1.2 GWh/year (7.6% of total — solar is the dominant resource)

Estimated Annual H₂ Production:

Electrolyzer	Annual H₂ (kg/year)	Operational LCOH (USD/kg, electricity only)
Alkaline	313,429	2.46
PEM	300,795	2.61
SOEC	417,905	1.87

Important limitation: the operational LCOH above includes electricity cost only — it does not account for CAPEX amortization or stack replacement. SOEC appears most favorable here due to its low energy consumption, but this contradicts the literature (6.08 €/kg, the highest of the three) once CAPEX and the much shorter stack lifetime (20,000–40,000h vs 80,000–90,000h for Alkaline) are factored in. These results should be read as electricity cost trends, not as a complete techno-economic ranking.

Daily Energy Variability

Average daily energy availability is relatively stable (40,000–56,000 kWh/day across most months), but day-to-day variability is significant, especially August–November, where the coefficient of variation reaches 16–25%. November shows the widest range, with daily output varying from ~17,500 to ~47,200 kWh — nearly a 3x difference. This has direct implications for electrolyzer sizing: a system designed around the monthly average could face days of reduced load or shutdown during these months, reinforcing the case for hybrid solar-wind operation with storage or oversizing during the low-wind season.