TECHNICAL AREA Project: Thermic solar monitorization Sotavento

At Sotavento wimd farm there has been a thermic solar energy installation since 2003, to heat water, for a floor heating in the Control Room and an aerothermos heating in the Workshop area.

The main characteristics of the istallation are:

• Solar surface: 8 m² (trademark Wolf).
• Accumulation volume: 500 litres.

The auxiliary energy system is worked by a wind-water heat pump.

The project pretends the monitorization and automation by means of the development of a specific Scada program of all hydraulic circuits which compose the thermic solar installation. At the same time it will be the base in order to analyze the performance of this kind of thermic solar installations by means of the obtention of different reports:

• Balance of supplied and consumed thermic energy.
• Performance of solar collectors.
• Performance of the heat pump according to ambient temperature.
• Dossiers and evolution graphics.

The methodology of the project has reached the following phases throughout the year 2004:

• Definition of variables to be controlled (temperatures, volumes, calorific power).
• Definition of measuring sensors (temperature catheters, volume measuring, sensor to measure radiation and ambient temperature) and their acquisition.
• Definition of analogical and digital inputs and outputs. Acquisition of a value acquisition card, suitable for these variables and actuation relays.
• Cabling and installation of sensors and control card.
• Establishment of automatic working rules of the installation, alarms and storing in value basis.
• LabVIEW programmation for manual and automatic working, register and visualization of historical variables in 10-minute-intervals, working states, alarms, etc.
• Starting: verification of correct measuring of sensors, starts and stops of the pumps according to programmation, etc.

The system has been working since December 2004, which will allow us to obtain throughout this year, reports about the thermic solar energy performance in this kind of water and heating applications in our community.