Cogeneration (CHP) is a system that produces electrical and thermal energy in a single, high-efficiency process. Using an internal combustion engine or a turbine, it recovers waste heat for industrial or civil uses, reducing consumption and emissions compared to separate production.
System Integration consists of integrating different energy technologies (cogeneration, photovoltaic systems, heat pumps, BESS, thermal/refrigeration plants) into a single coordinated system managed by a supervision platform. The goal is to maximize efficiency, operational continuity and load flexibility.
Biomethane is a renewable gas obtained from the purification of biogas and can be used for cogeneration, grid injection or as a biofuel.
The FER2 decree introduces new incentives for plants powered by innovative renewable sources, including biogas and biomethane, supporting the development of efficient and sustainable projects.
A PPA (Power Purchase Agreement) is a long-term energy purchase contract between a producer and a final consumer. It helps stabilize energy costs, reduce market risks and support the development of renewable or high-efficiency plants.
The surface right allows the installation of an energy plant on land not owned by the developer, in exchange for a fee paid to the landowner. It is widely used for photovoltaic and agrivoltaic projects, as it optimizes investments and reduces land acquisition costs.
Agrivoltaics integrates agricultural activities and photovoltaic production on the same land. Solar structures are designed to allow machinery access, crop growth and continuity of agricultural practices, improving energy yield without compromising agricultural productivity.
The EPC model (Engineering, Procurement & Construction) involves a single party managing the design, procurement and construction of the plant, guaranteeing timeframes, costs and performance. A turnkey supply focuses solely on the construction of the plant, without the same level of responsibility for integrated design or permitting management.
A BESS (Battery Energy Storage System) is a battery-based storage solution that allows energy to be stored, loads to be stabilized, demand peaks to be managed and self-consumption from renewables to be increased. It is particularly advantageous for facilities with variable load profiles or those integrating photovoltaic or cogeneration systems.
While cogeneration produces electricity and heat in the same process, trigeneration also adds the production of cooling. The recovered heat is used to power an absorption chiller, which generates chilled water. In practice, trigeneration makes it possible to utilize thermal energy even when cooling is needed (e.g., in summer or in industrial processes), improving the overall use of available energy.
A heat pump does not “generate” heat by burning fuel; it transfers heat from a lower-temperature source (air, water, or ground) to a higher-temperature environment through a refrigeration cycle (compressor + refrigerant). For this reason, it can provide more thermal energy than the electrical energy it consumes. This ratio is expressed through indicators such as COP (in heating) or EER (in cooling), which can be greater than 1.
A photovoltaic system converts light into electricity through the photovoltaic effect in the cells (semiconductor materials). Production mainly depends on solar irradiance, temperature (generally, as temperature increases, module efficiency decreases), orientation/tilt, shading, dirt, and conversion losses (inverter and cabling). For this reason, two systems with the same peak power (kWp) can produce different amounts of kWh per year in different locations or conditions.
Hybrid solutions are particularly effective when the goal is to maximize efficiency and energy continuity by integrating different technologies into a single coordinated architecture (e.g., cogeneration, photovoltaics, BESS, and heat pumps) managed by supervision systems.
Biogas is a gaseous mixture produced by the anaerobic degradation of organic substances. It mainly contains methane (CH₄) and carbon dioxide (CO₂), plus traces of other compounds (e.g., water vapor, H₂S). Biomethane is purified/upgraded biogas: CO₂ and impurities are removed to obtain a gas with a high methane content, more similar to natural gas and more suitable for grid injection or use as a fuel.
The calorific value indicates how much energy is obtained from the combustion of a gas. The LHV (Lower Heating Value) does not consider the recoverable heat from the condensation of water vapor in the exhaust gases, while the HHV (Higher Heating Value) includes it. The distinction is important because it affects how fuels and efficiencies are compared: for the same combustion, an efficiency calculated using LHV will appear numerically higher than the same one calculated using HHV.
The power factor (cosφ) indicates how much of the power absorbed by a system is actually useful (active) compared to reactive power, which is necessary to operate loads such as motors and transformers. When the cosφ is low, the circulating current increases for the same useful power. This can lead to higher losses and, in some cases, penalties on the electricity bill for reactive energy.