Teamnetwork Energia, the first photovoltaic plant has been inaugurated

The greenhouse structure

The first photovoltaic plant by Teamnetwork Energia started operating in Ispica, in the province of Ragusa, in January. It has a gre enhouse structure, which allows using the ground below for agriculture, thus the same space has a dual purpose. The special roof ventilates, effectively reducing the difference in temperature between the interior and the exterior, for the benefit both of the crops un derneath and the photovoltaic module, which would have a reduced performance with the increase of the temperature. The resulting greenhouse allows naturally obtaining the conditions of shade necessary to grow plants commonly imported from subtropical forests.

The plant

The photovoltaic panels, tilted 20°, are appro priately placed at a distance of about 10 me tres from one another to minimize the effects of shade for the production of energy. The arrangement was made taking into account the shade effects of the profile on the horizon, recorded using a digital camera and elabora ted by software produced by GreEnergies S.r.l. – capable of obtaining the curve on the horizon with an azimuth amplitude of about 280° and a solar altitude angle of up to about 15° on the horizon.

The photovoltaic plant is made up of 2 equi valent sub-plants, each one consisting of 1140 modules configured in parallel-series connection through 57 strings in each sub plant. Therefore, the plant is made up of a total of 2280 modules for a total absorbing surface of 3,721.00 m2.

To implement the conversion of energy pro duced by the photovoltaic field, two high ef ficiency inverters have been installed with a parallel panel of 16 inlets and 32 Master & Slave Schneider Electric fuses in direct cur rent for photovoltaic plants. This has the fun ction of connecting in parallel the Array Boxes to the Inverters, making the parallel connec tion of the subfields and intervening in parti cular conditions of low radiation in order to reduce the losses of the system, the parallel of subfields and protection against short cir cuits.

The whole plant is connected to a LV/MV transformation centre, the outlet of which will be connected to the user cabin where the MV protections are housed with the outlet of 20 kV to the ENEL protection in the delivery ca bin.

The control, monitoring and supervision system

The main purpose of the control, monitoring and supervision system is to acquire both in hardwired and in series the data from the dif ferent components that make up the plant in question, and report them on the Supervision and Control Post through a GSM/GPRS net work. It will thus be possible to supervise the re gular functioning of the plant, guaranteeing continuity of operation and safety. All the data measured (parameters measured in real time and derived parameters) are stored in a data base. This database can be copied and sa ved periodically to guarantee completeness of the data. In addition, as mentioned, the supervision system also has the functionality of a web portal for remote control, that allows using telecontrolled sites through a simple browser and from a single address.