Hydrogen Airships: a necessary return because of high costs of Helium

Many airship projects have been presented during last years. Most of them are slowed in their realization because of very high costs of Helium. This paper presents an economic and energetic comparison between Helium filled airships and Hydrogen filled ones under the hypothesis of buying 20 Mpa compressed Helium and local production of photovoltaic hydrogen by electrolisys. The economic evaluation comprises the costs of PV plant for hydrogen production and docking and distribution systems for both gasses. Analysis of uncertainty has been performed to evaluate economic parameters and payback time of the investments.