Objective As the photovoltaics (PV) industry has exponentially grown towards large scale installation over the last years, the need for accurately monitoring the solar resource of PV power plants has 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. However, because of their severe economic and operational limits, this solution does not allows for fine grained detection and intelligence of system failures causing losses of production, and thus of revenue, and low efficiency of maintenance operations. Our project aims at bringing to the market 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 for precise and accurate characterization of the PV performance, that directly translates into room for optimizing profitability. Two major European companies have expressed a strong interested in the our sensor and are willing to run pilot tests in their PV installations: one is LightSource, the leading developer of solar PV projects with 30% market share in the large scale solar sector in UK; the other is Enel Green Power, the Italian-based multinational developer and manager of 1.6 GW of large-scale solar plant across Europe, Africa and Americas. These two giants cumulatively manage 1.1% of total solar capacity installed worldwide. Fields of science engineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringelectronic engineeringsensorssocial scienceseconomics and businesseconomicsproduction economicsengineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringenergy and fuelsrenewable energysolar energyphotovoltaicsocial scienceseconomics and businessbusiness and managementcommerce Programme(s) H2020-EU.3.3. - SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Secure, clean and efficient energy Main Programme H2020-EU.2.1.1. - INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies - Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) H2020-EU.2.3.1. - Mainstreaming SME support, especially through a dedicated instrument Topic(s) SMEInst-09-2016-2017 - Stimulating the innovation potential of SMEs for a low carbon and efficient energy system Call for proposal H2020-SMEInst-2016-2017 See other projects for this call Sub call H2020-SMEINST-2-2016-2017 Funding Scheme SME-2 - SME instrument phase 2 Coordinator ALITEC SRL Net EU contribution € 669 761,75 Address Via ponte nazionale 33 54023 Filattiera Italy See on map Region Centro (IT) Toscana Massa-Carrara Activity type Private for-profit entities (excluding Higher or Secondary Education Establishments) Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Participation in EU R&I programmes Opens in new window HORIZON collaboration network Opens in new window Other funding € 287 040,75
