Tremiti Desalination Plant

Summary

The Tremiti project will assure the drinkable water supply to the Island of S. Nicola in the Adriatic Sea. The system is a stand-alone plant for sea water desalination using the reverse osmosis process, energized by a photovoltaic power plant. A p.v. array will give a 65 kWp nominal peak power. MPPT/MBC converter will feed the main d.c. bus and the storage battery which assures the uninterrupted operation of the desalination plant during overcast periods. The total plant area is 4500 sq.m; 1800 of them covered by the p.v. field: the layout of the rows of modules has been designed to optimize the efficiency of the array subsystem, to minimize atmospheric overvoltage, and to assure easy operation and maintenance. Good fitting with the natural characteristics of land is obtained. The final solution of the supporting structure satisfies to the last Italian codes for seimic areas: pv modules are bolted to galvanized steel beams supported by walls of prefabricated vibrated concrete blocks. The electric appliance load will consist in a.c. induction motors driven by single inverters. The R.O. plant will produce about 5000 cu.m. of water with an average power requirement of 13 kWh/cu.m. A power flow supervisory system will optimize, in every possible operating condition and system status, the utilization of available energy. A data acquisition system will monitor continuously the system and record the relevant parameters.