A Micro Smart Grid at REbuild

Friday, June 16, 2017

At REbuild 2017, a “Micro-Smart-Grid” will be installed that will, for the first time in Italy, provide power for the event to be held in Riva del Garda from 22nd to 23rd June. It will be a small autonomous network that uses renewable sources and tells the future of energy in our cities.

A giant flower made up of solar panels will move to follow the sun, accumulating its heat. A wind turbine will capture the wind’s energy and a group of batteries will convert the light and wind energy into power. This is the “Micro-Smart-Grid,” an intelligent energy network and a solution providing greater independence from the public grid by using a private grid powered by renewable resources. This little treasure will be presented at REbuild 2017 and anyone can admire its functioning and enjoy its effects. The energy obtained from the sun and wind and accumulated during the day will be used at sunset to supply the Congress Centre and illuminate the lake-front in the centre of Riva del Garda. A micro-grid allows you to have your own network, able to exploit the energy produced by renewable sources, store it and make it available to internal users, interacting with them and with the public network. It is a system that allows a company or a large building, such as a hospital, a restaurant or a shopping centre to be energetically autonomous.

The self-production and local distribution of energy from renewable sources is also an opportunity for Italy, but a legislative change is needed for it to become a widespread system. "At European level, the energy package, which was launched at the end of 2016, envisages a central role for the" Prosumer,” i.e. he who is both a producer and a consumer – said Gianni Silvestrini, president of Green Building Council Italia and Scientific Director of the Kyoto Club - while from the Italian point of view there is a need to adapt the legislation that does not allow the exchange of energy today. The Energy Authority should, in essence, lay down rules that allow this type of operation. A first step was taken with a provision of the Authority that, experimentally, allows some applications, but only after 2020 will all of this be feasible in our country. “This future will already be present in a demonstrative form at REbuild with an intelligent energy network composed of an external part of energy production from renewable photovoltaic, wind and biomass sources, and from an internal part, i.e. a central system, where energy is converted and accumulated. Inside the building a series of sensors will make it possible to obtain data from the environment, for example, the temperature and/or electromagnetic pollution, so as to act on it to preserve and guarantee “well-being," pointed out Davide Tinazzi, owner of Energy Srl, a company established in ‘Progetto Manifattura’ and technical manager of the project conceived by REbuild that involved Art srl for the photovoltaic system (Smartflower), Italsol for the wind power plant, Manni Energy for the wiring, support for the engineering of the entire project the installation, Viessmann Nuove Energie for photovoltaic panels, UpSense for sensors, DataBoom for data management software (savings/consumption) and SOLID power with its fuel cell micro-co-generator. The system can make entire buildings or neighbourhoods autonomous, but if more energy is needed it is always possible to obtain it in a traditional way from the public network. Interaction is possible, therefore, with the network, but not only. When there is a surplus of energy, rather than diverting it towards the public network, it could be used, for example, to activate a heat pump that can heat sanitary water for the evening shower, transforming the electrical energy into heat. The Microgrid that will be operating in Riva del Garda will allow visitors to see "what it is" and "how it is made up" and will also serve to demonstrate how the state of technology, today, allows us to have energy autonomy using renewable sources at a sustainable and affordable cost. Alessandro Cattaneo, chairman of the Joint Heritage Foundation of ANCI and of Federimmobiliare, emphasised that all technological developments for energy saving and the reduction of environmental impact have an enormous impact, above all on real estate development. “These factors are the main lever for investing in urban renewal today. Summing up the benefits of saving with the incentives available today both at the community level and at the national level, it is possible to construct financial economic plans that also support investments of a certain size, applicable to complex urban areas too that therefore go beyond the boundaries of a single building. However, these must be accompanied by an appropriate administrative innovation that mainly includes productive forms of the allocation of resources to avoid altering the market and aiming to have positive effects over a long period of time.” Italian municipalities are increasingly sensitive and interested in the issue of urban regeneration and increasingly informed and looking for opportunities on the matter of energy efficiency - concluded Alessandro Cattaneo, chairman of Federimmobiliare. The way forward is clear. The challenge continues to be primarily cultural, but also, and above all, what will make the difference will be the public/private relationship.”