Innovative Micro Solar Heat and Power System for Domestic and Small Business Residential Buildings

Project Information

Innova MicroSolar

Grant agreement ID: 723596

DOI

10.3030/723596

Project closed

EC signature date 22 August 2016

Start date 1 September 2016

End date 30 April 2022

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Secure, clean and efficient energy

Total cost

€ 3 999 383,75

EU contribution

€ 3 999 383,75

Coordinated by

UNIVERSITY OF NORTHUMBRIA AT NEWCASTLE
United Kingdom

Periodic Reporting for period 3 - Innova MicroSolar (Innovative Micro Solar Heat and Power System for Domestic and Small Business Residential Buildings)

Reporting period: 2019-09-01 to 2022-04-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The large-scale uptake of Renewable Energy technologies for energy supplies of building at different levels is of paramount importance for the protection of the global environment, which is the focus of international activities across almost all countries in the world.
The overall objective of this Project was to develop an innovative, high-performance and cost-effective 2-kWel/18-kWth solar heat and power system for application in individual dwellings and small business buildings for onsite electricity and heat generation, using solar thermal energy at temperature levels of 220-280 deg. C. The Project combined and utilised the following technologies: Linear Fresnel Solar Concentrating Mirrors to produce high-temperature thermal oil, a small (micro) Organic Rankine Cycle turbine and Phase Change Material (PCM) thermal energy storage (TES).

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The project activities were broken down into eight separate Work Packages.
WP1 (Project Management)
In this work package, administrative and financial management and coordination were carried out, including the endorsement of Steering Group membership, Advisory Board, managing all the administrative and financial aspects of the Project, such as distribution of the funding received from the EC according to the Grant and Consortium Agreements, preparation and coordination of cost statements, contractual issues, monitoring of project progress, assessment of results and reporting, and coordination of Data Management and its Exploitation and Risk Management.

WP2 (Continuous benchmark of Built Environment)
Four Deliverable reports were produced in this Work Package.
The first report provides information on the types of residential buildings in Spain, Italy, the UK, France, and Germany. Data includes details on architecture, building envelope, range of living space dimensions, insulation, domestic hot water and space heating. There is also information on typical seasonal and annual energy demands.
The second report provides similar information for small business buildings.
The third report discusses issues of integration of Innova MicroSolar plant into buildings.
The fourth report provides information on the current state of energy demands and estimation of potential carbon savings from the deployment of the Innova MicroSolar plant in the most common domestic and small business residential buildings in European countries.
WP3 (Research & Development of Component Technologies)
R & D work was carried out for designing the Linear Fresnel solar concentrating collector, 2-kWel ORC turbine, reversible heat pipe latent heat thermal storage and the plant's control system and the creation of a Solar Salt-based PCM compound with enhanced thermal conductivity.
Full design documentation was prepared for the above sub-systems of the plant.
WP4 (Component technologies evaluation and optimisation in laboratory conditions)
Components of the plant were manufactured and laboratory tested. The designs of components were modified as the result of these tests.
WP5 (Demonstration: System integration, evaluation and optimisation)
The demo site for assembling Innova MicroSolar Plant was selected in the village of Almatret (Catalonia, Spain). The residential building in this village and ground were made available for the plant's installation by the local municipality. The existing building (which had been a primary school) was planned to be converted into a hostel. However, construction works carried out by the local municipality were not completed by the end of the Project. Therefore a very large hot water storage tank was used as an interface between the plant and the building. Electricity generated by the ORC turbine was measured and fed to the electrical mains.
The first conducted tests revealed design shortcomings of components, which needed to be modified.
WP6 (Final optimisation of the design and field tests)
Using data from test results, the designs of components were optimised, and further field tests were run (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyoyifhmRP8 and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9RkTBSG0iQ). Weather conditions during the plant's tests in the 2021-2022 period were not particularly good, with the number of sunny days being less than that for typical years. Experimental results demonstrated that the plant achieved the target values from 25 April to 20 September (2 kWel and 18 kWth output with the efficiency of the ORC at the 10% level and total plant efficiency of 90%). In late November, December and January, there was no sufficient level of irradiance to run the ORC turbine and the TES system and thermal energy generated by the solar field was directly used to heat water for domestic use. In other periods of the year, the performance of the plant is reduced with the drop in solar irradiance. For the period of tests, the plant demonstrated the capacity to generate annual electrical and thermal energy of 2,767 and 17,254 kWh, respectively, see Figures 1 and 2.
WP7 (Evaluation of technical-economical and environmental performance)
Based on the obtained experimental results of the field tests of the plant, a comparison of technical-economical and environmental characteristics of the proposed technology with that of a number of other renewable energy technologies was carried out for a number of locations in the EU and beyond for different types of climate. Results demonstrate that the proposed Innova MicroSolar technology can be considered very competitive with other advanced renewable energy technologies.
WP8 (Dissemination and Exploitation of Results)
The Project was presented at a number of public events, including specialised workshops, conferences and exhibitions. Several short videos were produced about the Project (available on the Project's website and Youtube). The Project was also featured in several newspaper articles. 19 Journal and more than 20 Conference papers.
The ORC turbine, the Linear Fresnel solar concentrating field and the plant's control system were commercialised.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

• A novel lightweight Linear Fresnel mirror solar concentrating field was developed;
• The smallest ORC turbine (2-kW) in the world was developed;
• The novel PCM thermal storage design with the deployment of reversible heat pipes was
developed.
• A new PCM compound was developed based on the application of Solar salt and expandable graphite, which enhances the thermal conductivity of Solar salt by a factor of 20.
• The novel smart control unit for the plant with extended capabilities was developed.
The impacts made by Project are as follows:
• Results of analysis demonstrate that the Innova Microsolar system provides the highest energy savings in southern EU countries, in some of them even covering the whole electricity demand. In the rest of the locations studied, the energy-saving values from electricity consumption fluctuate between 20% and 60%.
• When using the Innova Microsolar system in a single dwelling, the CO2 emissions reduction objective (targeted in the Project as 20% compared to other renewable energy systems) was easily achieved in most locations. Carbon emissions reduction achieved was between 70% and 95% in southern locations, between 35% and 65% in northern countries, and between 35% and 70% in Korea and Japan.
• Expansion of the business activities and market opportunities for SMEs engaged in the Project.

Figure 2. The seasonal variation of the typical average thermal energy output of the plant

Figure 1. The seasonal variation of the typical average electrical energy output of the ORC turbine