ABSTRACT
The present experimental work is devoted to explore the efficiency of alkaline
water electrolysis in producing hydrogen when it is operated by solar energy. The
overall system efficiency is determined by measuring the solar irradiance as the
source of the input energy, and the amount of hydrogen produced as the source of
the output energy. Hence, the losses through the Photo-Voltaic (PV) cell,
connecting wires, and the water electrolyzer, are all considered in the present
study. Moreover, the effects of the gab width distance and the separators' types,
on the overall system efficiency are also presented. It is found that, the higher the
electrolyzer efficiency, the higher is the overall system efficiency at almost
conditions. The significant reduction in system efficiency may be due to losses of
the energy conversion through the PV cell and the electrical losses in the
connecting wires. Though, the electrolyzer efficiency reaches 90% and the
maximum overall system efficiency of 1.7% is barely achieved.