Solar energy

A brilliant future for the thermodynamic solar energy

Duplomatic Oleodinamica has been maintaining a worldwide leader position in the energy sector: for such a reason it has been involved in the Archimede Project developed by Enea in cooperation with Enel, aiming at producing low-cost, environmentally friendly solar energy. The innovative technology is based on the concentration of the solar energy through parabolic mirrors and on the consequent heating of a fluid whose thermal energy can be stored and used to produce steam, to start the turbines and to generate electricity. Such a process, based on the intuition of Carlo Rubbia, who was awarded the Nobel prize in Physics, uses as heat carrier a particular mixture of molten salts whose temperature can reach 550°C. The first industrial plant employing such a technology is currently under development in Priolo Gargallo (Sicily).

Duplomatic Oleodinamica has realized the sun-tracking collector system, formed by a supporting framework (including shaft and cylinders) and by the hydraulic drive system (including the control panel). The basic criteria of functionality, safety and energy saving have been duly taken into consideration while designing the whole system.

The use of NG6 directional proportional valves, type DSE3, together with a customized digital card and a rotary encoder allows the constant tracking of the sun with a position and speed closed loop and with a positioning precision lower than ±0.8 mrad. Thanks to two pumps the system performs the sun tracking procedures at a speed included between 0 and 45 mrad/min, while the safety position is reached at a ten times higher speed. The structure of the driving tower and the employed hydraulic cylinders allow to keep the pointing accuracy unchanged with a wind blowing speed up to 16 m/s; the stall torque corresponds to 85,000 Nm.

Solare XXI

Formed by four sector leading companies, the Consortium “Solare XXI” is aimed at developing a highly technological and innovative product, i.e. the linear parabolic solar collector with molten salts. Solare XXI represents the Italian technological excellence in the sector: Archimede Solar Energy for the production of the receiving pipe, Ronda High Tech for the realization of the reflective panels, Duplomatic for the motion control system and Techint for the design of the supporting frameworks and the component integration.