“Accurate plant analyses are essential to be aware of the health of your assets. Each plant has its peculiarities, and it is crucial to know them well to identify the best engineering solutions to maximize performance while preserving the territory and optimizing costs. Our team is constantly working on all the latest technological innovations in the sector to seize all the opportunities to increase the production of green energy for our country” – Alessandro Caffarelli, Head of Engineering.
MORE ENERGY ON LESS LAND: THE REVAMPING OF OUR SANTA LUCIA PLANT
EF Solare’s commitment to increasing solar energy production is realized through multiple activities that include not only the development of new projects but also the enhancement of existing assets using innovative technologies.
Recently, the Group has undertaken multiple revamping activities aimed at improving the efficiency of some photovoltaic plants with low-performance or malfunctioning main components (modules and inverters).
“The increasing availability of digital information in the photovoltaic industry is changing the way companies make investment decisions and monitor the performance of their portfolios.” – commented Claudio Alori, Head of Performance & Monitoring – “Our team is daily committed to acquiring, analyzing, interpreting and enhancing the data collected to support the management’s choices, such as identifying suitable plants for technological revamping activities”.
Building on the analysis provided by EF Solare’s integrated monitoring system, it was decided to start a revamping activity at the Santa Lucia (Lazio) plant –with a capacity of 2.7 MW– to tackle the degradation of solar panels and losses in productivity.
Through the technological modernization project undertaken by the team led by Alessandro Caffarelli, Head of Engineering at EF Solare, we carried out the following:
(i) a replacement of polycrystalline modules with monocrystalline ones. These are technologically more advanced and efficient, limiting losses due to higher temperatures, and ensuring higher energy density.
ii) an optimization of the photovoltaic generator’s stringing configuration, maintaining the original configuration of the field switchboards and the inverter.
Thanks to this activity, it was possible to improve the performance of the plant by about 10% for the same unit of land, increasing the production of green electricity generated by EF Solare. Our Group has always been committed to environmental sustainability. For this reason, our revamping projects often feature complementary interventions generating positive ecological externalities. These include extraordinary maintenance activities aimed at improving the entire project area through ground consolidation and water regimentation works to avoid hydrogeological problems.
Thanks to this revamping operation, in the first 8 months of 2022, the plant’s electricity production has increased by an amount comparable to the aggregated consumption of 125 households. The additional green energy produced thanks to the new modules has saved around 153 tons of CO2 in the same period, an amount that would have required more than 10,000 trees to be absorbed.
“Accurate plant analyses are essential to be aware of the health of your assets. Each plant has its peculiarities, and it is crucial to know them well to identify the best engineering solutions to maximize performance while preserving the territory and optimizing costs. Our team is constantly working on all the latest technological innovations in the sector to seize all the opportunities to increase the production of green energy for our country” commented Alessandro Caffarelli, Head of Engineering.