Mar 15 2010
The first meeting of the DIGESPO Project – coordinated by FBK and financed by the EU with over 3 million euros – to be held on Tuesday, March 16, at the University of Uppsala. The prototype will enable the household exploitation of solar energy with a 60-70% yield.
DiGesPo Technology
Producing heat and electricity directly at home with innovatory technology, capable of achieving a yield of 60-70% of the harnessed solar radiation: this is the aim of the DIGESPO Project (DIstributed CHP GEneration from small size concentrated Solar POwer), coordinated by the Fondazione Bruno Kessler of Trento and financed by the European Union with funds for over 3 million euros in the next three years.
The first technical meeting of the European project partners, following the launching of the project earlier this year, will be held on Tuesday, March 16 at the University of Uppsala, in Sweden. Besides the FBK and the University of Uppsala, other partners attending the meeting will be the researchers from the Polytechnic of Milan and from the corporate partners “NARVA” (Germany), “ELMA” (Riva del Garda, TN), “SES” (UK) and “Projects in Motion” (Malta).
The system, which can be installed at any home, comprises a series of small parabolic elements, with a diameter of 40 centimetres, mounted on the roof, and a heat engine (Stirling engine) for which the FBK’s REET Research Unit has developed and deposited an international patent. The purpose of the parabolic elements is to concentrate the solar radiation and heat a heat transfer fluid running inside a vacuum tube to a temperature of 250-300 °C, to activate the engine connected to the system and produce electricity and heat. The engine innovation will enable the production of energy from renewable sources at household level, without any exhaust gas emissions and suited to the energy needs of the final user.
The Scientific Coordinator of the DIGESPO Project is Luigi Crema, a researcher at FBK’s REET Unit, at the head of which is Alessandro Bozzoli and which carries out research & development activities in the field of renewable energy. “The system”, Mr. Crema explained, “is already being developed. FBK will provide a fundamental contribution to the development of the thermodynamic engine, to the study of the high-temperature heat transfer fluids, and to the material for converting the solar radiation into thermal energy. The first prototype will be available in 18 months time and will be tested in Trentino, at the FBK laboratories, and at the Hilton Hotel in Malta. A more advanced version will be developed and commissioned in the middle of 2012”.
“DIGESPO, regarded as one of the best European Energia 2009 projects”, Mr. Bozzoli explained “is part of an overall vision of research that the REET Units at the FBK have been engaged in developing over the last few years, and as a result of which the FBK is becoming internationally renowned in this sector. Our goal is to accomplish a complex technological system, based on new technologies capable of integrating different renewable energy sources, to help buildings gain a certain degree of energy self-sufficiency. The forecasted technological impact is enormous, at both the local and the European and, indeed, international levels. The programme relating to energy for buildings is consistent with the European programmes and objectives in this sector”.