Skip to main content
Library

Energy mass balanceCostingHydrogen

PEM 20 MW Germany 2024

PEM water electrolyser, 20 MW, grounded on EU/IEA/IRENA/DOE 2024 techno-economics for Germany.

Photo of Open Jack

Open Jack

Founder · OpenJack

Basic Numbers

Select electrolyser type. Technology affects specific electricity consumption and reference CAPEX assumptions.

Total electrical input capacity of the electrolyser system (MW).

min 1 · max 1000 · step 1 · MW

Effective electricity consumption

Technology-specific specific consumption adjusted by capacity-factor penalty

…kWh/kg

Hydrogen production rate

Main product, while operating at nominal power

…kg/h

Hourly water requirement (volume)

Feedstock need per hour, converted to m3

…m3/h

Hourly oxygen co-production

O2 co-product per hour (stoichiometric)

…kg/h

Annual Balance

Average utilization over the year. Used to compute operating hours and annual production/consumption.

min 5 · max 100 · step 1 · %

Annual electricity consumption

Electrical input energy based on nominal power and capacity factor

…MWh/year

Annual hydrogen production

Main product, annualized by capacity factor

…kg/year

Annual operating hours (at capacity factor)

Used to annualize production and costs

…h/year

Annual water requirement

Feedstock need (make-up water), stoichiometric basis

…m3/year

Annual oxygen co-production

Co-product (if captured/purified); otherwise vented

…kg/year

Costs

Total project CAPEX (all-in)

Installed plant cost + indirects/owner costs (screening scope)

…EUR

Equipment purchase cost (EPC supply, excl. installation)

Electrolyser system package purchase only (screening)

…EUR

Installed plant cost (equipment + installation)

Excludes owner costs unless embedded in installation factor

…EUR

Scaled specific equipment CAPEX

Electrolyser package purchase cost intensity after scale curve and clamps

…EUR/kW
Scale effect

Log in to view this sensitivity chart.

Annualized CAPEX (CRF-based)

Total project CAPEX converted to an annual payment equivalent

…EUR/year

Equipment breakdown: stack share

Indicative allocation within equipment purchase cost

…EUR

Equipment breakdown: balance of plant (BoP) share

Indicative allocation within equipment purchase cost

…EUR

Equipment breakdown: power electronics share

Indicative allocation within equipment purchase cost

…EUR

Simple LCOH2

Average delivered electricity price to the electrolyser (all-in, as applicable).

EUR/MWh

Screening value for purified/industrial water. Stoichiometric water need is calculated; treatment losses are not modeled.

EUR/m3

Levelized cost of hydrogen (LCOH)

Total annual cost divided by annual H2 production

…EUR/kg

Economic lifetime for levelized cost calculation.

years

Used to compute CRF for annualizing CAPEX.

About

Calculator context

Proton-exchange-membrane (PEM) water electrolyser sized at 20 MW for a German / EU 2024 screening case. CAPEX, specific consumption, O&M and cost-structure constants are grounded in authoritative sources: the European Hydrogen Observatory 2024 EU electrolyser cost dataset (all-in PEM CAPEX ~2,400 EUR/kW for an advanced-stage 100 MW project, decomposed here into an equipment reference of 1,500 EUR/kW plus the golden installation 0.35 and indirect/owner 0.20 factors), the IEA Global Hydrogen Review 2024 assumptions annex (water electrolysis 66% LHV efficiency, annual OPEX = 3% of CAPEX, 50,000 h stack life), the US DOE H2NEW PEM cost record (system electricity usage ~57 kWh/kg, 30-yr system life, 50% baseline capacity factor) and IRENA's Green Hydrogen Cost Reduction report (PEM stack ~45% of system cost, power-supply/rectifier 20-30%). Only PEM-relevant and techno-economic constants are overridden; structural, stoichiometric and selector constants keep the golden defaults.

Model

81 variables — inputs, calculations and outputs, with their dependencies.

81 variables shown of 81
VariableValueUnitDepends on
1——
50MW—
90%—
60EUR/MWh—
1.5EUR/m3—
0.08ratio—
20years—
VariableFormulaUnitDepends on
if((<=0)+(<0)+(>100)+(<0)+(<0)+(<0)+(<=0)+(<)+(>)>0,1,0)bool
*kW
clamp(+*(-(*0.01)),,)—
if(==,,if(==,,))kWh/kg
*MWh/h
*kg/year
if(==,,if(==,,))EUR/kW
if(==,,if(==,,))—
*(/max(,))^(-)EUR/kW
if(==,,if(==,,))1/year
*(/max(,))^()1/year
clamp(,,)1/year
if(<,/max(,),(*(1+)^)/max(((1+)^-1),))—
*EUR/year
*EUR/year
*EUR/year
VariableFormulaUnitDepends on
*(*0.01)h/year
*kWh/kg
/max(,)kg/h
*kg/year
*MWh/year
*kg/h
/max(,)m3/year
/max(,)m3/h
*kg/h
*kg/year
clamp(,,)EUR/kW
*EUR
*EUR
*EUR
*EUR
*(+)EUR
*(+)EUR
*EUR/year
+++EUR/year
/max(,)EUR/kg

Assumptions

38 assumptions used in the calculations

  • Prevents division-by-zero and NaN propagation in edge cases.

    Market range Not applicable (numerical parameter).

    0.000001
    Numerical stability constant for division guards.

  • Used for capacity-factor annualization.

    Market range 8760 (non-leap year); 8784 (leap year).

    8760h/year
    Calendar-year hours convention.

  • Converts MW to kW for kWh/kg calculations.

    Market range Exact.

    1000kW/MW
    Unit conversion.

  • Converts water mass to volume for reporting.

    1000kg/m3
    Approximate density of water near ambient conditions.

  • 2H2O → 2H2 + O2 implies 18 g water per 2 g H2.

    Market range 9 (stoichiometric); higher if including purification and blowdown losses.

    9kg water/kg H2
    Stoichiometry of water electrolysis.

  • 2H2O → 2H2 + O2 implies 32 g O2 per 4 g H2.

    Market range 8 (stoichiometric).

    8kg O2/kg H2
    Stoichiometry of water electrolysis.

  • Represents efficiency degradation and non-ideal operation at lower utilization in a simple way.

    0
    Screening utilization/part-load penalty coefficient.

  • Prevents penalty from improving performance below the reference specific consumption.

    Market range 1 (by definition).

    1
    Clamp lower bound for penalty factor.

  • Avoids unrealistically large penalties at low capacity factors in a screening model.

    1.35
    Clamp upper bound for penalty factor.

  • Required because DSL has no strings.

    Market range Not applicable.

    1
    Numeric selector encoding.

  • Required because DSL has no strings.

    Market range Not applicable.

    2
    Numeric selector encoding.

  • Required because DSL has no strings.

    Market range Not applicable.

    3
    Numeric selector encoding.

  • Avoids inline literals in DSL expressions per spec.

    Market range Exact.

    1
    Numeric constant.

  • Validates selector domain.

    1
    Input validation bound.

  • Validates selector domain.

    3
    Input validation bound.

  • Screening mid-point for modern PEM systems including balance-of-plant loads.

    57kWh/kg
    Representative specific electricity consumption (LHV basis implied) for PEM electrolyser.

  • Screening mid-point for modern AEL systems.

    52kWh/kg
    Representative specific electricity consumption for alkaline electrolyser.

  • AEM is emerging; value set conservatively for screening.

    56kWh/kg
    Representative specific electricity consumption for AEM electrolyser.

  • Provides a consistent anchor for scaling specific CAPEX with size.

    20000kW
    Reference size for scale curve.

  • Screening mid-range for PEM system purchase costs.

    1500EUR/kW
    Reference equipment purchase cost intensity for PEM at reference size.

  • Screening mid-range for alkaline systems.

    850EUR/kW
    Reference equipment purchase cost intensity for AEL at reference size.

  • Emerging technology; set conservatively for screening.

    1300EUR/kW
    Reference equipment purchase cost intensity for AEM at reference size.

  • Represents economies of scale for packaged systems.

    0.85
    Scale exponent for PEM equipment costs.

  • Represents economies of scale for packaged systems.

    0.85
    Scale exponent for AEL equipment costs.

  • Emerging technology; assumed slightly weaker economies of scale.

    0.9
    Scale exponent for AEM equipment costs.

  • Prevents unrealistically low specific costs due to scaling outside intended range.

    400EUR/kW
    Clamp minimum for scaled specific CAPEX.

  • Prevents unrealistically high specific costs due to scaling outside intended range.

    2500EUR/kW
    Clamp maximum for scaled specific CAPEX.

  • Represents installation labor, foundations, cabling, piping, and commissioning at screening level.

    0.35
    Installation and construction factor applied to equipment purchase cost.

  • Approximates engineering, permitting, contingency, owner's costs, and development costs.

    0.2
    Indirect + owner costs factor on installed plant cost.

  • Represents routine maintenance, staffing, and service agreements at screening level.

    0.031/year
    Fixed O&M fraction of total project CAPEX (PEM).

  • Screening assumption; alkaline maintenance cost may be somewhat lower in some service models.

    0.031/year
    Fixed O&M fraction of total project CAPEX (AEL).

  • Emerging technology; assumed higher service/maintenance burden at screening stage.

    0.051/year
    Fixed O&M fraction of total project CAPEX (AEM).

  • Represents mild economies of scale in fixed O&M overheads.

    Market range -0.15 to 0.

    -0.05
    Scale effect on O&M fraction.

  • Prevents implausibly low O&M fractions in large-scale cases.

    0.0151/year
    Clamp minimum for O&M fraction.

  • Prevents implausibly high O&M fractions from scaling artifacts.

    0.081/year
    Clamp maximum for O&M fraction.

  • Represents stack as the dominant cost component in many electrolysers.

    0.45
    Equipment cost allocation share.

  • Captures pumps, piping, cooling, gas-liquid management, controls, etc.

    0.3
    Equipment cost allocation share.

  • Represents rectifier / power electronics package share of equipment cost.

    0.25
    Equipment cost allocation share.

Sources

Primary reference

IEA Global Hydrogen Review 2024 — Assumptions annex