Author Archives: Giordano Mancini

Nova Somor won the first edition of Klimahouse Startup Award. The jury, coordinated by the Scientific Director of the Innovation Days Klimahouse Luca Barbieri, has awarded the Innovation radical constituted by our low-temperature thermodynamic engine applied to the lifting of the waters, or the solarpump. No electricity or fuel, no CO2 emissions. Nothing pv panels or other expensive materials to be disposed, the solarpump works directly with the energy of the sun. Then a radical invention and not “derived” from others.

The competition was attended by about seventy Italian start up. Nova Somor was selected among the 10 finalists, so taking advantage of the possibility of a free stand at the Startup Klimahouse Area in 2017. We then passed the final selection for the final and, thanks to the votes of the jury, we won in Greennovation and Egg Technology, the other two startups get to the final on January 27 afternoon. Nova Somor has thus won the first edition of the award, promoted by Fiera Bolzano IDM Alto Adige and Blum, dedicated to the Italian startup that work every day for a green and sustainable future. The victory will allow Nova Somor inclusion in the network of Klimahouse through participation as exhibitors and speakers (with all the costs of travel and accommodations included) to Klimahouse 2018, exhibition and as speakers to the stage ComoCasaClima, to visibility of communication tools of Klimahouse 2018 (video, social, advertising on the website and catalog) and a Competency Mapping by IDM, South Tyrolean agency innovation.

The whole jury was particularly impressed with the top level of the innovative ideas in the race. Opening the final speech waas the meteorologist Luca Mercalli, who thus urged startups: “Do not just do innovation and just threaten to slip into” greenwashing”, but demonstrate with numbers the real benefits that your products can lead to heat “environment”.

A jury very qualified and competent

Judging by the nominations it was a jury composed of teachers, innovation experts, journalists. The jury, coordinated by Luca Barbieri, as Scientific Director, consisted of: Antonio Cianci, founder Airlite; Luca Mercalli, meteorologist, researcher and adviser; Chiara Tonelli, Professor of Architectural Technology at the Department of Architecture of the University of Roma Tre; Timothy O’Connell, head of H-Farm accelerator programs; Ulrich Santa, director of CasaClima Agency, public structure of the Autonomous Province of Bolzano in charge of energy certification of buildings; Thomas Mur, director of Fiera Bolzano; Michael Plank, Plank President; Hubert Hofer, Director Development Department IDM; Giulia Cimpanelli, Corriere della Sera; Archangel Rociola, journalist of AGI, Italian Journalistic Agency.

New applications for thermodynamic engine Nova Somor

The new visibility achieved by Nova Somor within the green building opens the door to new applications of our technologies. The meetings with potential partners and requests collected during and after the fair Klimahouse considerably extend the range of application of our thermodynamic engine. The ability to operate in off grid mode, even at night thanks to the combustion of biomass or use of lost-hot, make it interesting our machines even in areas so far unexplored. We have received requests to generate electricity, to cool environments, for lifting water from tanks of rainwater collection and other applications still. For a small start-up like us it is challenging and expensive activitie in terms of money and time spent, but in the future these activities strengthen our ability to stay even in the domestic market. Until now we have concentrated on the development of the international market, considering it the only one able to absorb the large production we want to achieve, today we see interesting opportunities in Italy.

Giordano Mancini
Rimini January 31th 2017

Since its foundation Nova Somor has focused on the development of solar pumps small to medium size, suitable to serve the isolated farms, small farmers and ranchers and villages around the world, especially in poor countries in tropical regions. But talking with a focus centered on the theme of reducing environmental impact and the reduction of CO2 emissions, we must prepare for the future also different challenges. For example, in Australia there are water problems to solve much larger dimensions than those we are facing now.

Our importer with whom we have signed a few months ago an exclusive contract for Australia, the Dedica Global Trade of Perth, is analyzing the local market before starting the import and it identified very challenging needs for Nova Somor . For example in the Frankland River area, about 300 km south of Perth, Dedica Global Trade has identified a potential customer, interested in our technologies. It is a farmer with a property of about 10,000 hectares with cultivations of various kind and farms. In the territory there is only brackish water and irrigates thanks to rainwater accumulations. Within the customer’s property there are water channeling works.

Those works seem of two-lane roads, leveled to the millimeter from specific machines that give the necessary slope according to the orography of the terrain in order to precisely channel the rain water which then will go ‘to end in a collecting basin. The collection reservoirs are interconnected by a hydraulic system that uses diesel engine to pump and then move water from one tank to another or to irrigate. The need expressed by the customer is to have solar pumps based on our thermodynamics technology capable of replacing diesel engines used for moving the water and provide tens of thousands of liters every day.

Only this company, as many of its kind in Australia, uses every year about 150.000l of diesel for its tractors and its hydraulic pumps, with easily imaginable CO2 emissions. It is a major challenge for Nova Somor, which requires capital and time to develop new larger size eliopompe, however we will try in the future to respond appropriately.

Giordano Mancini
Rimini June 13th 2016

Sunset in the territories of Frankland River in Australia

Photo above: Salvatore Montalbano of Dedica Global Trade (left) and his potential customer in front of a tractor in the Frankland River region about 300 km from Perth in Australia.

In the video technicians Nova Somor illustrate the operation of a NS2 to Sun Water Life entrepreneurs and technicians during a demonstration at the well in March 2016. The eliopompa was then prepared to be sent to Dakar, where it will be put into operation in the first ten days of July, after the ramadan. Operation of the machine in the video is fed from the burner, seen the cold and cloudy weather typical of the late Italian winter. In Africa the sun will certainly!

In the video technicians Nova Somor illustrate the operation of a NS2 to Sun Water Life entrepreneurs and technicians during a demonstration at the well in March 2016. The eliopompa was then prepared to be sent to Dakar, where it will be put into operation in the first ten days of July, after the ramadan. Operation of the machine in the video is fed from the burner, seen the cold and cloudy weather typical of the late Italian winter. In Africa the sun will certainly!

This year too Nova Somor will be present at SIAM, the biggest agriculture exposition in Africa, which will be held in Meknes, Marocco, from the 26th of April to the 1st of May.

Last year we were present with a small prefabricated stand and we showed only the NS1. This time we will have a bigger and more professional stand that we are already preparing with our new partner FFengineer. We signed a strategic cooperation with FFengineer to improve our sales in most interesting foreign markets and to organize international fairs and events. Beyond NS1, we will show also a NS2 and there will be videos to show how to install the NS2 exposed. This event is a great opportunity to organize commercial meetings with local clients and, most important, international buyers from African and Eastern countries and other stakeholders with which we would like to cooperate. For Nova Somor, Africa, in particular Magreb, represents the ideal marketplace and location where low temperature thermodynamic can fully express its potential. After all the first helium pump, the Elio Dinamic of Daniele Gasperini was invented in Libia in 1935.

Nova Somor, from the beginning of its activity, develops its low-temperature thermodynamic systems with the intent of providing solar machines for as many people as possible. The purpose is to replace polluting and energy-consuming machinery. It is in fact a solar water pump designed following the dictates of bio-economy of Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen, made to last, not to pollute and do not consume energy storage, like the fossil fuels ones. Our solarpumps are designed and built to be easy to disassemble in order to recycle materials at the end of life. Furthermore all our solarpumps models are always equipped with a manual mechanical drive system. In this way the water resource is still available for the user, even at night or when it rains, or in case of failure. Imagine how important can be for a farmer who works in arid areas of South America, or the inhabitants of a remote village in Africa, to continue to pump water by hand while waiting for the arrival of technical assistance. All pumping systems based on electrically motorized technologies, even with power supplied from photovoltaic, or driven by endothermic engines, are lacking of emergency manual systems. When they break the water is no longer available, because it is in the machine’s availability, not of man. Not having an emergency manual activation system for an hydraulic pump is not a very clever thing even here, but at least here there is no risk to suffer thirst or to see animals die from lack of water or harvest be lost because of drought. But in certain parts of the world it is really important and sometimes vital that water remains always available, even if it costs a little hard work.

Some friends proposed us a some time ago to send only manually systems in Africa, without any kind of engine. This in order to reduce costs for African customers and to further limit the possibility of mechanical failures. But these friends are in good faith and uninformed. In many parts of Africa and in other parts of the world where water is scarce, there is a school dropout problem and the exploitation of labor of women for “water servants”. They are almost always children and women to raise water from wells and sources and bring it in the villages, in the gardens, fields and to the animals to be watered. So from our point of view manual systems must serve only in an emergency or to pump water maybe even at night when you need just a bit. But it should not be the only tool available, otherwise you exit the vicious circle of exploitation of child and female labor.

Recently we improved our manual system, increasing the effectiveness and introducing a simple system that allows you to disconnect the thermodynamic engine by pumping. So when we need to work manually you don’t need to drag the thermodynamic system, increasing fatigue, as in our first solarpumps. There is more attention, which is very important for the logic and for the values of our project.

Giunto a sganciamento rapido fra pompante idraulico e motore termodinamico

After years trying to imagine and looking for new technologies with more “future capacity” than what they have now, many of which show widely their limits, finally in 2014 “we saw the light”, as the famous Blues Brothers movie, and we created Nova Somor inspiring us to the concept of Nicholas Georgescu Roegen’s bio-economy. We had in fact identified an italian technology from the ’30s, forgotten now-a-days, that can directly use the light for the production of useful mechanical work, without the usual “passage” through electricity. After a year and a half since the beginning of our start-up, now we realize that at the time the light was only “glimpsed”, the scope of our project was not fully understood. Working every day on thermodynamic systems at low temperatures and developing the international market for our products, we are becoming aware of what is potentially revolutionary during our path. This is not only about developing and updating a forgotten technology but very promising. The important thing is that with our systems we are going beyond the traditional concept of storaging energy and towards the real balance in the use of energetic resources of the planet. The way of accumulation was important to get where we are, but in many of the areas in which it is practiced it also becomes the reason of many of the problems of our civilization.

In the last two centuries a part of humanity has developed its technology, since the steam engine , based on the large accumulations of “black light”, the concentrated sunlight and “fossilized” in the oil, gas and coal . Thanks to technologies based on the black light, were made great improvements in the lives of people. But in recent decades, we realized two things: that fossil fuels will sooner or later end up and burning them in large quantities is changing the climate of the planet in a bad way. We also poison ourselves and the ecosystem that keeps us alive. So the ones of the industrialized world have, a few years ago, started to think and build technologies for the use of renewable energy. But it has not changed the way we think and we still think in terms of accumulation. Certainly these technologies are a huge step forward compared to fossil fuels, but they are still not “balanced” and do not exceed the concept of accumulation, because there is always electricity. The hydroelectric dams are made to store water and also the photovoltaic and wind energy, for their efficiency, are related to the accumulators of electric energy. It’s not that you think and you design in a new way, you just want to replace the accumulation of black light with the accumulation of white light that the sun sends us every day.

This is because it’s not easy to get out of the “single thought” of accumulation, in which we are living for too long. After more than two centuries of technological innovation developed along a linear way, it’s not easy to change the way you see things, especially for designers. Moreover, even in earlier centuries accumulation was the basis of our way of living and thinking, and still is. We accumulate stocks of all kinds for the difficult times and today we can save money, personal savings and retirement. Our economic system is based on the accumulation of capital, and even in almost every religion, for those who believe, we accumulate merits and demerits in this life that will be “weighted” to be rewarded or punished in the afterlife or in the next life. The accumulation is related to people’s lives and certainly involves many positive aspects. But at the level of development of new technologies and use of energy, solutions based on the accumulation in the long run do not have capacity for the future. Moreover the human being does not realize the limit of exploitation of resources, impoverishing and consuming even what should be left for future generations. Accumulation, for its characteristics, helps the human being to lose the sense of limit which regulates virtually all the Universe. Perhaps now is the time to review the old story of ants and cicadas to reassess cicadas, at least within the sphere that competes us.

The Nova Somor thermodynamic systems are radically different from other machines powered with renewable energy because it does not provide accumulation, if not in terms of a few ten minutes of thermal inertia. We manufacture and produce systems that do useful work when you need it and where you need it passing directly from sunlight to mechanical work, refrigeration, desalination of water, etc . in real time. No electric brokerage, without movement and without accumulation. Furthermore we always install in our systems manual activations so that, in case of failure, the resource remains available for people. In other mechanized pumping systems with solar energy water is available to the machine . In our case, while waiting for the assistance, the water can be pumped by hand and remains available.

This becoming conscious of the diversity of our systems, changes and evolves our vision and therefore our mission, to a wider level. We realize that, in addition to orient more specifically our internal technology choices, we can also affect other sectors. Our approach can provide ideas and inspiration for identifying new solutions in order to find the right balance between the various “comforts” of life and the cost of environmental energy that they have. In fact, we are creating a new line of thinking for the development of technologies for energy use. All this not in a perspective of reduction or regression of wealth, but in a perspective of a real modernization of the concept of comfort and technological utility by abandoning the old lines of thought based on the accumulation. Our daily commitment is to try to get the most out of water pumped, fresh product, desalination, etc., thanks to the light available at the moment. And also to design systems well “calibrated” and proportionate to the use, without following the usual mania of grandeur or the rules of consumerism.

In the field of energy use, not lifestyle, we should be guided by the nomadic aboriginal populations of Australia. When a group of these “primitive” goes for a “walkaround” in the outback of the hot Australian desert doesn’t bring anything. They wander naked without water bottles and backpacks, finding every day exactly what they need to live. Not surviving, but living well, in health and in joy. We “civilized” should arrive a day, keeping our comfort, to do the same with energy: use it day by day, without exploiting it, storing it, and above all without wasting it. When we get there we will be the perfect balance between wealth, energy use and environmental friendliness. A balance that will last without problems for an unlimited time, until the sun shines in the sky.

Giordano Mancini – Roberto Belardinelli
Rimini, 27th January 2016

The edition of Ecomondo 2015 ended on November 6th, fortunately leaving much work to do for the commercial area of ​​Nova Somor. Visits to our stand were very qualified and meetings with more than 15 foreign buyers have been very profitable. Already some of these, in particular those related to Brazil and Morocco, have had a concrete and operational follow-up. We also received many compliments from those who had come to visit us in 2014 and were able to see our progress both in terms of technology and range. Last year we were present only with the prototype of the NS1, set up on a light structure with two bike wheels. This year instead we have exposed the NS1 completely renovated and adapted to tropical climates, very evolved compared to the prototype. We also had exposed NS2-B and NS3. It was a great success and, according to many of those who visited all the exhibition, we were also one of the few technological innovations that have chosen a new way and don’t perfect and improve traditional ones.

Interesting is also the participation of Nova Somor with a second stand, the area dedicated to innovative start-ups. There have been conferences and events, the most important one that took place on November 5th for the awarding made by the Foundation for Sustainable Development. Nova Somor was awarded in the green section of the start-up and we made sure that prize was received from a person very special to us. For a couple of days in fact was present at Ecomondo Gildo Gasperini, son of Daniele, who patented it in 1935 Elio Dinamic, the forerunner of our solarpump. And it was always him who, after the war, founded the Somor, from which we took the name. In those days there wasn’t any kind of sensitivity to ecology and Daniele Gasperini didn’t have any reward that he deserved. So we decided to offer the opportunity to Gildo taking the stage of the event and receiving the award together with our Roberto Belardinelli, as a form of posthumous recognition to the value of his father. It ‘was a beautiful and exciting moment, with a moment of embarrassment and sympathy for the host of the awards ceremony. When he announced the time of the “young green start-up”, he found him self beside two people certainly young in spirit, but a little less in age!

So a very positive analysis at Ecomondo 2015, where we could achieve, during 4 intense days of work, a lot of visibility and many new useful contacts both for our business and also in terms of creating a more extensive network of contacts.

Guide to the correct assembly of the NS2 Solar Pump.

How to tell if the kind of technology is suitable for your needs and if so, which model to choose.

The electricity and motorized fossil fuel applied to the hydraulic pumps have accustomed to a certain precision in performance: you presse a button and the machine starts immediately delivering the quantity of water provided . Is not environmentally friendly, it has its direct and indirect costs but the performances are generally readily quantifiable. When it comes to renewable energy , things change a lot. To protect customers , it is necessary that the choice of a technology like ours passes through the knowledge of its features , so that it is a conscious choice. The approach must be different from what we’re used to with traditional machines , otherwise you may not get what you expecte and be disappointed.

At the moment there are no other solar thermodynamic pumps with which compare the performance of eliopompe Nova Somor, and not even international laws that say how the measurements should be made. But more or less we can apply the same logic and the same dynamics typical of photovoltaic : to understand which model to choose, and which is the eliopompa that suits your needs, you must focus on an average daily flow of water , just as in photovoltaics what matters is the average of energy produced each day .

Knowing that a photovoltaic system has a peak power, for example, of 3000 Watts, does not mean that every day we can achieve that energy production and for all the hours in which the sun shines: it happens very rarely and briefly. Each type of photovoltaic panel is tested with an artificial irradiation of 1000 Watts per square meter while the collecting surface is maintained at a constant temperature of 25 degrees centigrade. This helps to determine the yield and to determine the peak power. However, under real conditions the 1300 Watt per square meter of solar energy hitting the Earth’s atmosphere are filtered by the latter and 1000 watts per square meter on the ground do not get it almost never. In any case the panel surface is overheated by decreasing the production of energy up to 30%. The best conditions are, for example, with a radiation next to 1000 Watts per square meter, the time in which the sun is perpendicular to the inclination of the panel, there’s just been a bad storm that has cleared the air and blowing a nice north wind keeps cool the surface of the photovoltaic panels, only then you can reach for a short time the peak power. But if there is humidity, clouds or partialy cloud covered, season or time is not ideal in terms of the angle of the sun relative to the panels, or there is overheating of absorbing surface, the power output also decreases a lot. So what matters for photovoltaics is the average daily production of energy, which is never the peak power multiplied by the hours of sun, but it’s less. If this average production is adapted to your needs, you may go ahead with the purchase and installation.

Similarly, for eliopompe Nova Somor what counts is the average daily flow of water, not the maximum. Compared with photovoltaics, there are no problems of overheating, even the heat is always welcome.There are no energy losses due to equipment and intermediate steps. In addition we have the advantage that, if it comes to irrigate, the machine adapts itself to the needs: there more sun there is to drie the earth and dehydrate the plants, the more water is used, and more the machine works. On the other hand when it’s covered or damp, you need less water or nothing and our eliopompa works a little or doesn’t work at all. Therefore, we have a machine that adapts itself to the needs, adapting to the thermodynamic cycle of water of nature and plants. The maximum flow rate is instead the performance that the machine can do in the best conditions, which are the following: clear sky and free of humidity with the sun perpendicular to the inclination of the panels ( in any case necessary for a proper evaporation of the gas ) and water to be lifted at a cool temperature that increases the thermal delta to transform into pressure delta. So, for example, for the same season, and same clear sky, the same eliopompa can raise more water if it is located in the park of Kilimanjaro in Tanzania at high altitudes, where the sun’s rays are the ones of equator and have to go through less atmosphere, and where the water is icy glacier, compared to the exact same machine set to lift the warm water of a shallow channel in the wet and “Nordic” Po Valley. So for “maximum capacity” we mean the one obtained under the best possible conditions. Instead, the average daily flow is expressed with a delta of variability and is the one to be taken as a reference in the selection.

So an Eliopompa with maximum 3000 liters per hour declared, most of the time, due to the humidity in the air , time in which the sun is vertical to the panel because it is morning or afternoon , and other climatic factors , it will deliver between 1,500 and 2,500 liters per hour , for an average daily flow of between 7000 and 18000 liters .

If you need more capacity than our larger model or a constant flow because you have a farm, and the animals drink also when it’s cloudy, or because you still want to always have water available, then you need to integrate the system with other instruments. The first and easiest is to fill a storage tank to stock such as when the sun shines again after the rain you have the water you need: no need to irrigate immediately , but the eliopompa can work and store water for when it will serve to irrigate again . Or you can buy one of our burners / kettles , with little wood or other poor fuel , can run our eliopompe even with covered skie or at night.

In case of emergency or for unforeseen water requirements, however there is always a lever for the manual operation that allows to raise the water.