EHPA is actively involved in several European projects that are part of Horizon 2020, Horizon Europe, LIFE Programme and Interreg Europe
The Renewable and Waste Heat Recovery for Competitive District Heating and Cooling Networks (REWARDHeat) is a European project led by the Accademia Europea di Bolzano (EURAC) which includes 28 partners and has the overall objective of: demonstrating a new generation of low-temperature district heating and cooling networks, which will be able to recover low-grade renewable and waste heat available at low temperature. Focusing on the exploitation of the energy sources available within the urban context allows to maximize the replicability potential of the decentralized solutions developed in the project.
REWARDHeat will promote punctual metering, thermal storage management, network smart control as means to enable and optimise the exploitation of renewable and waste heat in DHC networks.
At the same time, this approach permits a change of paradigm with respect to the business models devised: thermal energy will not be seen as a commodity anymore, rather it will be sold as a service to the customers.
The European Technology and Innovation Platform on Renewable Heating & Cooling (RHC-ETIP), officially endorsed by the European Commission since October 2008, aims at playing a decisive role in maximising synergies and strengthening efforts towards research, development and technological innovation which will consolidate Europe’s leading position in the sector. As a result, the whole society will benefit from the increasing contribution of renewable heating and cooling to the European Union’s 2020 – 2030 – 2050 targets!
The RHC-ETIP brings together stakeholders from the biomass, geothermal, solar thermal and heat pump sectors – including the related industries such as district heating and cooling, thermal energy storage, and hybrid systems – to define a common strategy for increasing the use of renewable energy technologies for heating and cooling.
Building on the experience matured since 2005 within the European Solar Thermal Technology Platform (ESTTP), now incorporated in the RHC-Platform, five major European organisations – EUREC, AEBIOM, EGEC, ESTIF and EHPA – are leading the process towards the definition of a joint Vision and Strategic Research Agenda for the renewable heating and cooling sector.
Ask more info on the new structure of the Platform and how you can be involved in the next activities!
SPIRIT is a HEU project that aims to make heat pumps the lead heating technology for industry by 2030. It will do so by demonstrating three full-scale (0.7 – 4 MW) high-temperature (140°C -160°C) heat pump technologies in the food and paper industry. It will investigate how their technical and economic performance can be improved and it will show how waste heat can be used to produce steam, proving that a heat pump can supply 3 times as much heat as it consumes in energy. The project will also look at innovative business models and contractual agreements, and how they can increase the impact of industrial heat pumps. The Consortium, made up of 17 partners, will spread awareness on the barriers and benefits of upgrading heat technology in industry, with a view to reducing energy costs and greenhouse gas emissions. The ultimate goal of the project is to enable industrial heat pumps to become the reference technology for covering industrial heat demand for temperatures up to 160°C by 2030.
ECHO project will develop and demonstrate a new plug&play, complete, sustainable, flexible, modular, digitally controlled, and competitive system exploiting thermal energy storage (TES). The excellence of ECHO lies in demonstrating that the combination of advanced storage materials with innovative reactors and batch storages, together with advanced digital control, provides long lasting thermal energy storage, with an important load shifting by means of the energy conversion and storage, both for heating and cooling demand. ECHO results will be an innovative, compact and smart TES solution, based on the use and optimization of thermochemical materials (TCMs), combined with phase change materials (PCMs), for space heating, cooling and hot tap water production and, optionally, with ice storage for large cooling needs.
REDI4Heat is a new EU project, funded under the LIFE Programme, that officially started in October 2022. The project will run for three years and it will aim to accelerate the share of renewables for heating and cooling, by identifying national policy gaps thus proposing effective strategies.
The project will support five Member States (Croatia, Germany, Greece, Poland, Portugal) in identifying and addressing bottlenecks in national energy strategies, in particular in National Energy and Climate Plans.
The final objective is to develop tools to speed up the deployment of renewable heating and cooling systems while encouraging replication in other EU-countries
The project, kicking off in October 2023, aims to deploy collective purchasing approaches for energy systems replacement by heat pumps for individual homes at the scale of entire streets. Participants want to work with all relevant stakeholders, such as local autorithies (cities), housing organisations and residents to convince them of the interest of the approach and to aggregate a maximum of demand and make heat pumps buy-in schemes emerge. Installers and solution providers will also be involved in order to interest them in the process and encourage them to develop adapted, packaged, prefabricated and industrialized solutions, less expensive, more qualitative, with possible new services fitted to the ecological transition. All this should lead to a reduction in costs and the mass deployment of heat pumps in renovation, as a lever for decarbonising heat in existing housing.
The project focuses on excessive-high energy demand, which entails significant negative environmental and economic impacts. Consequently, it is imperative to increase the use of demand response strategies that shift electricity use from peak to off-peak periods. So, BEST-Storage wants to achieve the goal of peak load reduction and shifting, energy saving and energy cost minimization.
Moreover, the technologies for storing renewables for longer periods of months or seasons are scarce and costly and thus not widely used. Large amounts of energy are needed for the heat supply of buildings in cold winter months when solar energy is scarce and in general when renewable sources cannot cover the demand. Thus, seasonal storage solutions will be a necessary technology for the full decarbonisation of the energy supply system. In BEST-Storage, long and short-term high-energy density storage solutions will be developed and demonstrated in four demo cases around Europe. A thermo-chemical and loss-free storage technology will be developed as seasonal storage. Two-phase change materials slurry concepts and vacuum-insulated water storage will be developed, for cold and warm applications respectively, with the aim of shifting peak load demands. Finally, storage solutions will be integrated within smart building energy management systems featuring model predictive controls to reduce operating costs for short-term applications.
The project, kicking off in September 2023, aims to provide supportive measures for the key market actors suppliers, retailers and installers to raise awareness and facilitate the correct interpretation, application and the effective use of the European Product Registry for Energy Labelling (EPREL) database. The project will design a comprehensive set of training tools (FAQs, webinars, e-learning opportunities) as well as a helpdesk-service that will be implemented to support clarification issues of stakeholders in collaboration with the European Commission. The focus of the work will be on key technologies of the current Eco-design and labelling working plan of the EC including heating, PV, air-conditioning technologies and selected white goods
The project (funded under the Horizon Europe Programme) aims to implement a top-down application-agnostic approach for the design, simulation, test, validation, and application of both medium and low voltage direct current (DC) solutions. The Consortium will develop, test and demonstrate the technical feasibility, cost-benefit, life cycle and environmental impact of the proposed DC solutions in data centres, buildings, industry and ports across Europe. Furthermore, SHIFT2DC will also evaluate the consumers’ perspective regarding DC solutions and propose new tools that promote their faster adoption. The solutions proposed and developed within the project will be designed taking into consideration the interoperability requirements, the scalability opportunities and the security and privacy needs. In addition, the project results will contribute to the development of standards in compliance with the needs of DC solutions. Finally, a regulatory framework that promotes the adoption of these solutions and assures secure and economic power systems management under hybrid AC/DC grids will be proposed.
The Horizon Europe project META-BUILD aims to accelerate the electrification of thermal energy in buildings, providing a blueprint for decarbonising commercial and residential buildings. By integrating heat pumps with renewable energy sources and second-life battery storage, META-BUILD will pioneer cost-effective solutions validated at Technology Readiness Levels (TRL) 6-8. Using 3D models monitored by AI, the project will also optimise efficiency.
The focus includes six diverse building projects across various countries and climates to tackle different challenges. Seven additional pilot projects will replicate successful retrofitting and electrification solutions.
The EU funded project WaterWarmth works on facilitating energy communities (ECs) that are delivering the energy transition, and co-develop inspiring and replicable examples of cooperative aquathermal energy (AE) solutions, integrated into the local context, with citizens from across the North Sea Region. By adopting AE and other RES, ECs can control energy production in cooperative H/C systems, boosting local economies and promoting an inclusive energy shift. Creating cooperative H/C systems requires dedicated grids. However, transitioning from gas incurs costs, and reliance on cheap fossil fuels adds complexity. Challenges involve citizen engagement, AE integration, environmental impact, legal frameworks, business models, and securing funds while sharing risks. WaterWarmth tackles these challenges, empowering leading ECs, co-developing replicable AE solutions, involving NSR citizens, to reach a hastened energy transition and a greener future.
The Project aims to facilitate companies (especially SMEs) belonging to supply chains in the dairy sector to foster the market uptake of energy efficiency measures including the use of renewables and the deployment of heat pumps at the value chain level. Moreover, the project will also significantly contribute to the reduction of fossil fuels dependency fast tracking the energy transition.
The dairy sector is predominantly organized in cooperatives, which hold the majority of the market share. This factor makes relevant the necessity for cooperation and coordination between different players and increases the potential of a value chain approach. To achieve this integration, the project will implement capacity-building programs and steer companies and value chain decisions for energy saving, renewables, and heat pumps adoption investments with supporting tools.
Push2Heat is an EU-Funded project that aims at addressing the technical, economic, and regulatory barriers that prevent heat upgrading technologies to be widely deployed. It will do so by scaling up four different technologies (whose supply temperatures range from 90 °C to 160 °C) to optimise their efficiency and economic performance. In addition, it will focus on integrating them into the relevant industrial sectors such as the paper and chemical industries. The four technologies will then be demonstrated in selected industrial sites.