Unknown Speaker 0:00
Well, good morning. Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen, I can see there is a lot of interest on in the Italian market from from many different places. There’s of course, people in Italy but also all over Europe. And I say, Good evening in case there is someone I connect information, we are going to begin this online session about the winning levelized cost of electricity with bifacial Pv in Italy, and to talk about bifacial Pv, how it works, you know, how the projects are designed? And how are they a good fit for Italy, what to take into consideration. We have three experts with us today we’re going to talk about this with us. And I’d like to ask them to introduce themselves so that you can get to know them better if you don’t already. So, Francesco, can I ask you to unmute your microphone please and introduce yourself briefly to our audience.

Unknown Speaker 0:50
Sure. Thanks, Berlin. I’m Francesco amla and I’m the country manager of laundry for Italy.

Unknown Speaker 0:58
Thank you very much Francesco. I like also invite Andrea ferrata to introduce himself. He’s one of my colleagues in the engineering arm of Adam. Go ahead,

Unknown Speaker 1:08
Andrea. Hi, Ivan. Hi everyone. So it’s a pleasure being here with also with Emilio and Francesco today, Amanda Otto, and I’ve been working in sort of for many years I’ve got experienced as technical advisor and asset manager in the past. And now I’m country manager at at a renewables for Italy and North European countries.

Unknown Speaker 1:34
Excellent. And last, but most certainly not least, I’d like to invite Amelia to introduce himself as well to the audience. Please Emily, can you unmute your microphone so we can hear you. Thank you.

Unknown Speaker 1:45
Good morning.

Unknown Speaker 1:48
everybody. My name is Emilio marinelle. I am CEO of a our this have been in the industry for almost actually more than 20 years. Now, and I’ve been doing a meaningful development, consultancy due diligence. I’ve been involved in m&a services in Europe, Africa, Asia, I’m really Gus, and especially focusing in that.

Unknown Speaker 2:19
Incredible what 20 years you’ve worked absolutely everywhere. So thank you very much, Amelia. So as you can see, you have the point of view of the manufacturer of the bundles, you have the point of view of more of the technical, independent technical advisor. And also you have the point of view of the developer. So you’re going to be able to really understand, you know, this topic of why facials from many different perspectives. So what I like to ask is my colleague on the technical commands valaria to stop sharing the screen now so that I can ask our first speaker for the Francesco to open your presentation, and share it selecting the presentation. And once Francesco prepares and unmute his microphone, etc. I just have a few directions for you guys. Okay, so several things. This session is going to be three presentations from Francesco from Andhra and from Emilion followed by some time for questions we’ll do as many as we can, we’ll see how many we actually have time for. And if you send them send the questions to the q&a box, which is at the bottom of the screen, don’t send them through the chat. Because then the chat they get lost and you know, all the chatter in introductions and then send them through the q&a box the weekend, manage them more appropriately. So that’s number one. Number two, I want to remind you that we’re recording this session, and then we will send you a link to the materials which are the recordings so you can watch it again, perhaps send it to a colleague who hasn’t watched it. And also you can take a look at the detail of the presentations because our presenters usually send them to us. And usually also the presenters put their email address in the presentation so you can contact them thereafter. So Francesco, let me see if I can take your meal No, I can’t you have to take a user. Oh, there we go. Yeah. So I can see your presentation perfectly. I can hear you so go ahead with your presentation. Thank you very much.

Unknown Speaker 4:09
So hi everybody I want to give you you know, the perspective of module producer which is launching solar as

Unknown Speaker 4:19
modular manufacturer, you know, our way to

Unknown Speaker 4:23
we are 20 years old manufacturer with more than 40,000 people over for around 5 billion revenues in 2009. Just to give you a very, very brief presentation of ourselves. The reason why I’m talking here today is because our company it’s wafer a module manufacturer, which is leader in the bifacial technology we deliver worldwide more than five gigawatts of bifacial. glass glass all over the world. This is India is watching We are doing our for the for the future you know, we are developing a brand new project which is IMO five with the power output that will arrive to 540 watt peak you have the main parameters as you can see the can image you know the efficiency would be very high we pass at 21%. The main introduction we have done with this project together with other manufacturers to be honest because we we share our technologies to many others that many other manufacturers that are joining us we did decision to go for the M 10 wafer which is 182 millimeters to do the standard design the standardization of this without somehow wanted to lower the LTV because of course the manufacturer that are going To join us word save cost in terms of module production.

Unknown Speaker 6:06
Let’s give just

Unknown Speaker 6:10
a brief you know, look of what we are doing in terms of optimization of our modules, we have make this fully compatible with compatible sorry with all the inverters that are now in the market. This means that also as you can see here in this slide, we are working below a little below 15 Empire also when we have a bifacial gain, which is around 15% which is already quite high and they I know that it will explain this more in detail later. So, I didn’t go too much on the on the topic and the other important things that We made we have automated the module sides

Unknown Speaker 7:06
to perfectly match with the

Unknown Speaker 7:10
tractor so that we are now we have now available on the on the market. All this when we turn this in two numbers because you’re on your way in the end we are talking about numbers. We just make an investigation you know and as you can see what the other technology including our technology 166 445 with that we still have in the in the market. We if we compare, you know different parameters including modular efficiency, voc EMP, we have the BLS costs going down quite a lot with our Technology if we compare our by Fisher, which is the name of 572 seats that you see here or the IMO 566, which is the other model that arrived to power out with 495. As you can see, if we compare it to the mainstream product that we have in the market, let me just give you the idea with the 495, which at the moment is very popular with the sell dimension of 200. We have a minus 1.274%. Sense sorry pivoine less cost. This means that, I mean, I don’t have to explain to you, but this means we have cost when we go on the on the megawatts side, you know, liability This is the other important topic that we need to talk about why we have We go to glass glass by Fisher. We have tested largely tested our moods wide together with many labs, as you can see over here and together with many of our customers, and these are simply reported result of what we have in terms of game by fish again, we go from 10% send rate down to 20% of white 13 that we have been in China, we have large number of installation and a large number of tests available about the reliability of our by Fisher. So as we said, as also been said, at the beginning of the presentation, just feel free to ask all the information you need about our product. About our installation last but not least, we have for using the Delta galleon technology on our our modules starting from last month began in the technology we use significantly the degradation of the modules and the way of introducing this on both mono facial and by Fisher. Awesome this we tested largely before the introduction into the our production line which I want to remember you we are talking about 30 Electric production at the moment. We have the larger marginal effects the worldwide and we are tested this technology on a very large base with the numbers, important numbers of test and we are going to commercialize this project from now. Which have really no degradation compared to

Unknown Speaker 11:07
bombed up at the technologies

Unknown Speaker 11:11
that’s it I mean, I know that my colleagues will go more on the on the details from our side, we can only let’s say optimize our projects to be you know valuable and compatible with all the technology that we have available at the moment including tracks, trackers and structures, what maybe just lost information we we have decided to go to glass glass, because of many reasons. One of the most important anyway is that we have resistance on the trackers that is better. And we do need to cover like transparent the shift modules. For example, the backside to ever resistance Which is comparable with the standard modules. So it’s also more reliable for the time being because we don’t create shared around in the back. So we don’t have a problem about spot that can come out in the near future. I’m To be honest, I’m not knowing the question because I suppose answer to go to together with the other panelists at the end of the discussion, but am I right? Okay. Now you have to unmute your microphone.

Unknown Speaker 12:33
You are right. You are right. Okay.

Unknown Speaker 12:37
Okay.

Unknown Speaker 12:38
So are you done? Are you still continuing?

Unknown Speaker 12:41
No, no, I’m done. I’m done. I don’t want to go too long. I want to leave you some space to the question, but I suppose there would be many questions. Yeah, there

Unknown Speaker 12:49
are some questions already there for you. You can answer by text or you can wait until the end of the session. Okay, next up is Andrea, Andrea, same for you. Open your Europe. And share it and the microphone. And yes, well, we have two questions already. They are very specific to your presentation so perhaps you can answer them and not for sure we get the end. Okay, Andrea, go for it.

Unknown Speaker 13:15
Great. Okay. Can you see my Yes, we

Unknown Speaker 13:17
can see you.

Unknown Speaker 13:19
Okay, I gain thanks, villain for the introduction. So today we’ll discuss about some insights regarding the design of future projects and risks involved with during the bankability. So, let me briefly talk about eta renewables. We are an independent advisory firm working in renewables since 2005. We have a total experience that reaches 80 gigawatts and more than 500 projects are ready financed and successfully constructed. So it’s pretty clear In the industry, what is bifacial? Now, because this sector this technology is around by at least four years for large scale project I would like to talk about today Why should we consider these in Italy too. So first of all, by facial is becoming mainstream with the gigawatts amin solar project worldwide. So the outlook of this technology looks huge. The main drivers so far have been meat tender processes, where it’s super important being competitive. Also, in the last two years, we have been seen, we have seen a massive increase in innovation both from models as we have just seen with the Francesco presentation, but also from the PV tech or system side. So in this context, the first part of the presentation will be focused on the technical consideration about the SUV. Then we briefly Talk about the albedo measurement, which is one of the main concern when we we have to see the bankability. So there are several power meters that influence the resulting SUV. But now we just see three important factors for at least for Italy, land cost, the model distance and the ground albedo. In Italy, land cost is historically quite high and also quite a lot size. But whoever fooled by facial gain from the model we need more distance between rows. So, this is obviously it kind of reads in terms of land use and higher costs. On the other hand, less distance between rows Alps having higher peak power, so finding the optimal geotechnical configuration is a key optimization task. Finally, since the ground amido is a very sad species, To see if having an accurate estimation of these is it’s crucial to determine the actual SUV. So, a takeaway from here is that the strategic and specific analogy is very important and the recommended eta, we help doing that assessing design and the economic parameters for our clients. But another very important point in my opinion is that the clear clear game changer for the Italian market will be the cost reduction of the models. So the trend so far says that the price gap between mono and by facial is constantly decreasing and will be at some point close to zero. So this is my opinion with compensate the IR Catholics do the language acquisition at wit finally trigger these technology also for for the Italian market.

Unknown Speaker 16:56
Tour. Let me now show you some extra Pull up the how we can optimize the LTV. So, the ground coverage ratio DCR represents the distance we just talked about between trackers. So, the higher is the DCR, the less is the land needed for a given array or wherever there is a room to optimize these this ratio and this is provided by the tracker system, so the length of the tracker can be important. Indeed, the longest trackers can increase the DCR in the north south direction. This is because we have less bearing ports and therefore less spaces between models in the north and south dimension. So this is an option that could be considered. Also, the second point, the selection of the DC cabling arrangement is very important for for the LCA. I have an example here. So these two figures show two PV power blocks with St peak power. And the same GCR but two different concept designs. On the left we have underground VC cables using string boxes. On the right we have overground solutions. So, in this case, we have this VC armistice between the loggers and DC buses, we need to we have estimated that in terms of capex in the solution are we this reduction on the right we can obtain a reduction in the order of 20 25% only regarding the DC system cabling costs so, we have a cost for of point zero 24 US dollar VAT with the underground cabling, and we can get something around point zero 18 US dollar VAT. So, this is something that should be considering the re engineering face.

Unknown Speaker 18:51
The last

Unknown Speaker 18:52
aspect is the PV tracker configuration. So, usually we can have one model per trade per 90 minutes audios in row or we can get to model persuade in 45 models. So shorter trucker in case of irregular and hilly sides and we know that in Italy, it’s something that we can normally see shorter drivers allow to better fulfill the available land getting higher power. So in the in the right figure, we have a solution with shorter flagger. As you can see, it’s not that easy to see, but it is we can have higher peak power. On the other end, it’s completely opposite in case we have a completely flat solution. So, when we have flat terrain, the longer is a tracker, the more power we can we can get this is because there is a distance due to the torque tube gap in the model for trade solution. So there is a consumption gland because of these, these, this gap. So we’ve seen that there are so many parameters to be considered Planning and or pre union phases. That’s why we do recommend Ganesh in our analysis as a powerful tool to create a cost effective concept design. So the last part of this presentation, I will be focused on the importance of estimating the albedo. This aspect is strategic for both bankability and production consideration. So there will be there is defined as the ratio between the reflective Iranians and their ghci. So the global is Ontario abbreviation, or wherever measuring it is not that simple. It’s not a simple process at all. And this is because the albedo has seasonal and the inter-annual abbreviate is so for this dimension of the Alameda County and why there are several factors to be to be taken into account in the calculation. There are ideally three different ways to do that. So we can do a terrestrial measurement. We can have tested databases with metro station to these databases are not so recommended because results are not well representative. We can get satellite data. They’ve been around lots of sort of databases, which provided reliable data, but the accuracy can be in some cases quite quite high for the bankability and also for the estimation, and finally, we could do on site imagery romance with that below meters, this is highly representative and has low uncertainties levels or wherever normally requires long term combine. And normally it’s it’s one year of data to be to be get on site. So in eta we had the idea to match the second and the third options, and we obtain in the short term is government campaigns by the correlation with the satellite data The method is divided in four steps. So the first two steps are honestly pretty standard, some are just the the measurement phase. So with that a bit of a middle meter on site, we can put one or more meter meter, depending on the size of the of the plant. And then then we have to do the second phase is data processing, which is just the data cleaning from x like that value. Nothing new new so far. But the core of these matters is a data correction. Data correction from not representative effect. So for example, if we went on site in August, but in July we had an unusual rainy month. We know that that measurement was affected by no representative factor we can in this case is the precipitation but we have lots of options. factor that can be involved. So that’s why understanding unusual effect and correct them from the measurement is very important to for the calculation of the albedo. Then we finally we have the last step, which is the correlation with the long term soil database. There are lots around, and we use a lot of the database available. So what we had to do we have to validate this method. Let’s see now are we did that.

Unknown Speaker 23:34
So the validation of this method was done in 2019, measuring the in real TV project in Spain close to TV. Yeah. We measured their bed once per month. Then we start looking at several factors. We check the 15 satellites, the basis the basis, then we use different x Revelation method and finally, we use also different credit correction methods. So, we obtain and soft something like 70 different methods we tested them with aim to identify the one that gave us the best result but what is the best result method for best results I mean the one that provides the same albedo try either if we perform the test in January or if we go on site for example, Novus, so, this is how we got to the ETA metric then that leaves the albedo team why with the short test campaign, but also with the low uncertainties, we we calculate the standard deviation of one point 39%. So, these figure this is the last slide for today’s and This table shows some sites where we already performed the albedo. They are around the 60 Pv project and we have also prepared the white paper on this topic. This is available I this is the link where you can easily download it. But anyway, there are also my contacts, feel free to reach me out if you have a any any question. So that’s that’s all from my side. Thank you all for your attention.

Unknown Speaker 25:19
Thank you very much Andrea, I’m going to take this away or perfect give them just to allow immediate to share his screen. And just to remind everyone please keep sending your questions. The first question is that the first batch was really answered by Francesco and as soon as we lose and then we will take a more but just wanted to make sure that that you guys know the Send them. Emilio. If you can put that in a large screen please. Perfect and remember to take your mute of your microphone so we can hear

Unknown Speaker 25:56
is that the top one I think on the left hand side

Unknown Speaker 26:00
Let me see if I can do it. I might be able to do it. No.

Unknown Speaker 26:08
No, hang on.

Unknown Speaker 26:10
Can you We can hear you. Can you unmute yourself again? Oh, there we go. Perfect. Okay, perfect. Go

Unknown Speaker 26:16
ahead. Okay, well thank you very much and Berlin.

Unknown Speaker 26:23
I’m going to talk about a how to reduce the lcra ncie from from the developer’s point of view. So firstly, I would like to talk a bit briefly about our T’s and C’s, the company I’m working for.

Unknown Speaker 26:39
Actually.

Unknown Speaker 26:43
That’s correct. So, our This is our utility scale developer and an investment platform, which is part of some of the power holdings. Our main markets are Brazil, Spain and Italy. We develop BB projects up to investment ready may stablish meaning that we’ll get all the licenses etc negotiated with key components secure EPA and finance in place. We currently have a have a pipeline of a six a year what out of those a one a with EPA.

Unknown Speaker 27:18
So

Unknown Speaker 27:20
as I mentioned, we are part of the Celtic group, and Celtic Isa is a leading trucking manufacturer established in in 2004. It has a strong presence international presence and agreements with top tire companies such as a nail toto EDF

Unknown Speaker 27:38
is indeed set or

Unknown Speaker 27:41
has something has a track record of 8.6 gigawatts and a backlog of 2.1 and 1300 employees worldwide. It’s currently the market leader in Mexico and Brazil and sick on a position in Spain, unfair worldwide. Something is relevant for this presentation is that in 2018, so they created by tech, which is the by bifacial charter Evaluation Center. It’s based in Northern California. And it’s our research facility, which collaborates with the main module manufacturers, among them among the other and other entities such as and veil on the in our EDS and other major epcr consulting firms like black and Veatch. And the main the main mission of biotech is to assess factors affecting by facial gain and to treat models predicting power generation in any bifacial plan. That’s why it’s relevant, because we will get to some of the results actually, so take a has released several white papers on on this research and studies which is very easy to find and soltec white papers, you will that you will be able to find all of them. So that’s Mainly the points that we’re going to discuss today. A bit expensive. So LCL E, in series stands stands for levelized cost of energy. If you Google that a, you can see many formulas, some very complex and very simple. The concept in itself is very simple. It’s just the average cost of energy throughout the lifetime of the project. So you see in the formula, which is, is working with a net present value, because M is to discount the amount to today’s value. So it’s a, since we’re talking about them 2530 whatever the year, so we are consumed for for the life of the of the of the project. Um, so he said, How are we going to improve health care, so it seemed I mean, this is a quick revision, so it’s either we reduce the numerator, which is the cost or we increase the generation which is the denominator. reducing the cost is possible. We are talking about my facial systems. Because since we are generating more energy, it’s either I mean we we can generate more energy or we can keep the maintain the energy and then reduce the DC part, which will end up in reducing cost. But it’s however, it says it’s normally better, more interesting to increase a generation and that’s what we will be discussing today. So this rapidly, I mean, a, so how are we going to reduce? So let’s let’s talk about technology first. So in the two panelists said before, by fashion models are becoming mainstream or white nowadays, since they provide a boost of energy generation at a rate right now at this status, a minimum increase in price, at least for p type models. So there are currently there are three main technologies. So it’s paper and bird and it’s a rejection. So, the first one that is the most common one is a out of the three is that it provides the smallest efficiency like some as on average, of course, there will be modules that will go beyond that. But, but also they have a lowest of the three the lowest referencing coefficient, because there are some aluminium in the backside, you still need it and that gives you a Beifuss increase in between 70 to 80. But the good thing about this technology is that they have an amazing price I mean seriously the best price of the three, then we have the Emperor which is a medium point. So now we say in the in the middle of the between the two in all aspects. And then you have the third junction, which is the highest efficiency, highest potential a cohesion between 90 to 95 but also highest price right? So, other ways to for the in the industry say is is working in a to reduce or increase the efficiencies by for example, working with pfsense you have the the current and therefore they you will use a power loss. So, with regards to mode modules as of today, we recommend that a in order to minimize the unseelie So, a use of paper module say things that we think is the best option.

Unknown Speaker 32:35
So, we now we’re going to talk about a structure and CUNY structure, we have the two main systems which is fixed and single axis Strucker. So, fixed Hill is the best solution for rooftop systems. divided by facial gain over a mono facial system, it could be up to 15% and this is a very very high libido some This is quite technical And also the rooftops allows for you know, good numbers in this respect because they’re also it’s easier to employ out to use and housing materials or you know housing materials which you know Indian it will generate more energy and produce a ncoic over over official for ground mount mounted system same single axis striker and by Fisher models are activists are a clear winner. That’s certainly there’s no much doubt about that. We take as I mentioned before, which is saltex bifacial Research Center has performed a full year study where a saltex or own to be tracker a ativar by facial gain of 15.7% over higher beta conditions and 7.3 over lower video and also regarding configuration. So, they are mentioned before one P versus two p there’s another study that are done by by tech and they found that a to b outperform one p truckers a under the same round cover ratio and veto by 2.1%. The main reasons for that is you can see in the pictures there on the on the right is higher module say mean higher wind speeds and then that’s a 14 day cooling capabilities thermal losses and then also the spacing between modules a to to avoid the torque to to buy shadows, increase also the cooling effects. So, you know, one way then minimize or eliminate the shadow of the torture, but also increases the cooling effects. So, you take this These pictures you can see a thermal image of a one B where you know the this these are big differences in in temperature, when you compare to the to be on this basically for the reasons that I mentioned higher higher module position, that means higher or higher winds and basically effect because of the flow that’s, that’s in the end that’s a you can get an increase in production of 2.1%.

Unknown Speaker 35:35
So, the next

Unknown Speaker 35:37
part of that parting in the technology, say inverters So, the traditional approach approach to invert the selection a will recommend a string versus below 20 sometimes they have to 14 out but um, central inverters a big on that. However, we are seeing how the market is evolving. In this perception and and you know, this is a this is challenging, there has been challenges for lately a, it’s getting more common to see large projects on 100 200 even three and even 400 megawatts with a string versus like, like maybe months ago. Nobody would expect the main reasons for that are a slightly higher generation with string birthless. But mainly the price reductions are eliminating the historical price gap between both technologies. And also a important very important is the increase in relative reliability and plug and play design of a string technologies. Technology translates into lower a&m. At the same time, central inverters are releasing new concepts of course and it resets all the elements in stock in this industry, such as liquid refrigeration system with a claim to offer higher efficiency increasing generation and therefore reducing NCR select sample an extra extra a point 5% in efficiency is equivalent to a up to 20% in Berta graphics. So, in this regard and after seeing all this we a within when selecting inverter technology. For larger plants, it’s recommended to analyze both technologies without any preconceived opinion that we might have from the past. So I’ll beat up a minute when I think I’ll go through this already because I’m a wonderful presentation regarding a leader.

Unknown Speaker 37:48
So we are going now we’re talking about beat

Unknown Speaker 37:52
and the design so by facing systems need higher beats or lower ground cover ratio, the more official ones So they extend the reflection reflected area, allowing more light to reflect from the ground to the backside of the module and also allows for more diffuse light to hit the backside. By having a larger pitch, the system also benefits from an increased tracking period. In other words in the morning, backtracking finishes earlier on in the afternoon starts later. That’s a that will also help improve in a generation. As an example, a and this is also part of the bite ticket studies a increasing bits from nine meter to 12 meter might increase generation from 9.5 to 14.5, concerning higher values to on and also just more in the real world. For a for average video values. We have seen like a 1% increase in production

Unknown Speaker 39:02
for every extra meter in bit,

Unknown Speaker 39:06
although, of course this is not linear. So once you get to a larger pitch pitch than than 12 meters that increase in its voice even lower. So I understand that Italy is is its land is lamesa is an issue with the, in Italy because of course unavailability. But what if, if, in ideal world a 30 meter pizza would be a really good option for for bifacial So, now, it’s a lower limit with us vs system also needs a lower DC AC ratio, and more official. And that’s because the backside power is not included in the model nominal power. So with your body now 400 or 500 Oh, 450 now what? Sorry, what a funnel, it’s not taking into account the backside power. So therefore, the five bifacial modules generate more energy, of course, then the equivalent to one official. And because of this inverters receive more current than with monetization, and then the click More or less reason, it’s recommended to go to a lower a overbuild or the CAC ratio. So you can see in the graph here on the right, how depending on the albedo, so it’s recommended one one ratio or another, for example, but very, very high libidos, even a one to one, he say is recommended. For lower leaders, you could do between 1.1 15 to 125, maybe, and then for more official, only say 113. Is that like the reference number So, I have just a couple of a slides left. So, um this is regarding a PV system. To maximize maximize generation, it is important to choose the right assumptions on PVC is one of the first decision is to select the right long term database for your site. There are many options in the market. However, the most the two most used ones are metronome in anthologies, sargi is depending on the specific region. There might be relevant difference in calculations of Jill when you see one or the other. And that has to be taken into account sometimes you find no difference in of 1% or even 2% depending on the geography.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai