PUSHING FORWARD IRRADIATION MONITORING EFFICIENCY
IN THE PV INDUSTRY

The Project

As the photovoltaic industry has exponentially grown towards large scale installation over the last years, the need for accurately monitoring the solar resource has sensibly increased. Historically, the PV industry has relied on monitoring stations for irradiance measurements, i.e. bulky and expensive equipment featuring pyranometers, pyrheliometes and sun trackers. Because of their severe economic and operational limits though, this solution does not allow for fine grained detection and intelligence of system failures causing losses of production, hence of revenue, and low efficiency of maintenance operations.
To overcome setbacks and downsides of the commercial irradiation monitoring technology, we designed the ESA 2.0 project.
The ESA 2.0 project aims at bringing to the market CaptPro, an innovative smart and handy environmental sensor featuring innovations in terms of technology, capabilities and cost that significantly exceed limits and downsides of irradiation assessment tools commercially available.
By enabling a simple and efficient single-tool monitoring it empowers plant managers to perform a precise and accurate characterization of the PV performance, that directly translates into room for optimizing profitability.

During the ESA 2.0 project:

• The CaptPro sensor and its complementary self-powered Wireless Docking Station (WDS) have been industrialized and are about to be launched onto the market

• The CaptPro sensor has been calibrated at the World Radiation Center in Davos, Switzerland

• Both the CaptPro sensor and the WDS have been certified for compliance with EU regulations for electrical and radio/tlc terminal equipment

• Major industry players have tested the CaptPro sensor and its complementary WDS in #4 operating PV installations in Mexico, Italy, and Switzerland

• The CaptPro sensor and the WDS have been presented in world-class industry exhibitions: InterSolar Europe & Meteorological Technology World Expo

• The CaptPro sensor has been presented in international conferences, workshops and sectoral events across Europe

• The CaptPro sensor has been advertised in leading industry magazines and websites

Capt

CaptPro is an handy and portable solar sensor that measures global, diffuse and direct irradiation with no need of tracking systems or moving parts.
It has been designed to substitute the full set of bulky and expensive instruments traditionally employed for irradiation monitoring purposes – pyranometers, pyrheliometers and sun trackers – with the aim of delivering seamless, high-precision irradiation monitoring capabilities to the PV and to the meteorological observation industries.
If coupled with WDS, its sun-fueled Wireless Docking Station, CaptPro can also be configured in wireless distributed networks thus enabling highly accurate, distributed irradiation monitoring.
Its complete outstanding monitoring capabilities, together with its small size, extremely easy installation mode and very low maintenance needs, make CaptPro the answer to a number of industrial and scientific application needs: from the O&M of photovoltaic installations, where it dramatically lowers the cost for effective irradiation monitoring thus making room for profitability optimization, to environmental observations, where it brings at hand the possibility to perform a complete irradiation monitoring at single, small meteorological station level; from the building energy management systems industry, where it enables the optimization and fine-tuning of heating- and cooling-related energy consumption, to plant science and precision agriculture, bioclimatic building design and canopy modelling studies.

CaptPro is an Alitec proprietary technology, and is object of a pending international patent application.

More Info

Pilot Plants

The Capt technology has been tested in operating conditions in the following PV installations:

• Villanueva, Viesca, Coahuila, Mexico - Installed capacity: 754 MW

• Zeppa, Emilia Romagna, Italy - Installed capacity: 4.7 MW
• Cennachiara, Emilia Romagna, Italy - Installed capacity: 1.9 MW
• Centro Professionale Trevano, Trevano/Porza, Switzerland - Installed capacity: 50 kW

Results

The ESA 2.0 project has been completed in August 2019 - the main results achieved are the followings:

• # 30 commercial prototypes of the CaptPro sensor prepared
• # 30 commercial prototypes of the WDS prepared
• # 4 calibration certificates, #3 conformities to EU-regulations for electrical and TLC equipment, and #1 bankability report obtained
• # 3 pilot test and pre-commercial agreements with industry players signed
• Pilot tests in # 4 pilot PV plants performed: 1 in Mexico, 2 in Italy, and 1 in Switzeland, cumulatively totalling an installed capacity of 760 MhW, with data gathered, analyzed and succesfully validated
• Participation as exhibitors to # 2 leading international industry trade shows: InterSolar Europe 2018 and MTW Expo 2018
• # 8 international events attended: Shape Energy H2020 Sandpits, Turin, Italy; SME Instrument Ph. 2 Welcome Day, Bruxelles, Belgium; 8th International SpectroRadiometer Comparison, Madrid, Spain; 35th EU PVSEC Conference, Bruxelles, Belgium; 2018 CIMO-TECO Conference, Amsterdam, The Netherlands; 9th International SpectroRadiometer Comparison, Saint-Véran, France; Primavera d’Impresa, Prato, Italy; DATE Conference, Florence, Italy
• Presentations, abstracts, and posters submitted and accepted to international conferences, workshops and sectoral events
• Naming, branding and coordinated image for the new product line prepared
• Project webiste online and updated
• Advertisings (1, 2, 3), editorial, banners, and emailer published in international sectoral magazines: Photon International, PV Magazine, Meterorological Technology International
• Video and multimedia presentation prepared and published
• Posters, boards, and official info toolkit for the new product line (CaptPro + Wireless Docking Station) prepared
• Application to # 4 awards submitted, two of which successfully achieved (1: link, 2: pdf for download)

Press release

• Il Sole 24 Ore – January 31st, 2017
• Il Sole 24 Ore – December 18th, 2017
• Tuscany Region official website – December 18th, 2017
• Meteorological technology International – September 2018

Deliverables released

• D1.1: #30 commercial versions of ESA sensors v2.0 [Confidential]
• D1.2: # 30 commercial versions of ESAnet docking station 2.0 [Confidential]
• D1.3: Calibration certificates by WRC [Confidential]
• D1.4: EU directives compliant certifications
• D1.5: Bankability report [Confidential]
• D2.1: Pilot tests and pre-commercial agreement with industry players [Confidential]
• D2.2: Installation reports [Confidential]
• D2.3: Pilot test reports [Confidential]
• D3.1: Application for patent extension at EPC and PCT level [Confidential]
• D3.2: Pre-commercial agreements (leads in the form of pre-orders) [Confidential]
• D3.3: Membership in international Associations and networks
• D3.4: Distribution agreements with national and international distributors [Confidential]
• D3.5: Abstract and presentations in conferences
• D3.6: Collaboration agreements with research centres [Confidential]
• D4.1: Brand identity, logo and coordinated image [Confidential]
• D4.2: Website [Here where you are!]
• D4.3: Ads in international sectoral magazines
• D4.4: Promotional video
• D4.5: Multimedia presentation
• D4.6: Official Info Toolkit
• D4.7: Posters and boards

About us

Alitec is an R&D company located nearby Pisa, Tuscany, within the Navacchio Technology Hub. Our mission is to create original and technologically advanced solutions bringing high value at limited costs, with the aim of bringing about the change we want to see in the world.
We design, develop, manufacture and sell technological innovations in the fields of:

• Renewable energies, in particular for the PV industry

• Utilities & energy efficiency for industrial and consumer purposes

• Smart metering for industrial and consumer applications

We are partner of Photonics21, the European technology platform that brings together the most innovative companies and leading research centres in the field of photonics.

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