The development project of the WAVE 120 micro power plant, which is ongoing at the University Centre for Energy Efficient Buildings of CTU, has come significantly closer to the stage of its real application on the market. Official measurement confirmed that the device reached the parameters required to obtain the so-called Ecodesign and can be installed practically throughout the European Union.
The WAVE 120 micro power plant meets all the requirements contained in the EU Commission regulation for biomass cogeneration units. Ecodesign is a set of parameters (mainly energy efficiency) that must be observed by the supplier (manufacturer or importer) of a product related to energy consumption when it is placed on the EU market, or into operation. The intention of the legislation is to support the spread of the most efficient technologies and thus reduce energy consumption during the product use phase.
The WAVE micro cogeneration device can simply be imagined as a fully automatic biomass boiler with associated electricity production. While ordinary boilers consume electricity for their operation, the WAVE unit produces electricity for its operation and is able to deliver excess electricity to the connected building or the distribution network.
The whole concept is known as combined heat and power generation (CHP), or cogeneration or, on a small scale, micro-cogeneration. The advantage of CHP is that part of the thermal energy released by burning biomass is used for conversion into a qualitatively more valuable form - electrical energy. Electricity production is realized through an organic Rankine cycle (ORC), which is cooled by heating water intended for heating.
The development of the WAVE 120 micropower plant was supported by the Technological Agency of the Czech Republic within the project Kogenerační ORC jednotka o tepelném výkonu 120 kW na dřevní štěpku v kontejnerovém provedení.
