In December 2023, the kick-off meeting was held in Brussels to mark the official commencement of the project. The overarching goal of the project is to showcase innovative, cost-effective, large-scale seasonal underground thermal energy storage (TES) solutions.
Two demonstration sites have been designated for this project, one in Riva del Garda, Italy, and the other in Oslo, Norway. The primary objective of the project is to optimise the availability and resilience of the heating supply while simultaneously significantly reducing energy losses and environmental impact.
This project is a vital component of the collective efforts aimed at achieving a carbon-neutral economy by the year 2050. It further underscores the essential role of district heating systems in driving decarbonisation within the sector. Additionally, by integrating renewable energies with excess and waste heat, the USES4HEAT initiative is poised to bolster the stability and flexibility of district heating networks.
The USES4HEAT project is being supported as part of the European Union’s Horizon programme and is set to receive substantial funding amounting to €9.7 million for its successful development.
Coordinated by KTH Royal Institute of Technology (Sweden), the consortium comprises 27 partners from across Europe, covering the entire innovation value chain. It includes a significant mix of ambitious of ambitious SMEs (ENER, HYDRA, ENDEF, SETECHCO, AT, 3SI), innovation-driven energy oriented energy companies (CELSIO, BD, ABSOLICON, CDG, AGS, AGP, HIREF, KUAB, VEO, HEP) and NPOs (EHP, EIHP, DEYAK), properly guided by top-level academia (KTH, UNIGE, CHALMERS) and R&D centres (IVL, CARTIF, FBK, CERTH), ensuring a well-balanced set of skills.
The project will be a cornerstone for the full market uptake of large-scale seasonal thermal energy storage as a key solution for modern heating systems. We will be able to explore and exploit the enormous potential for further large-scale replications, pushing towards a soon carbon-neutral economy in Europe. The deployment of large-scale seasonal TES harvesting important amounts of renewable and waste heat and excess electricity, and their full interaction with district heating networks, is crucial for the decarbonisation of the heating system in the current green transition context in Europe (Silvia Trevisan, Researcher at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, and scientific and technical manager of USES4HEAT)