The USES4HEAT project kicked off in December 2023 to enable a decarbonized and reliable heating supply through innovative large-scale seasonal thermal energy storage solutions.
USES4HEAT has received more than 9.7 million euros in funding from the EU’s HE Programme and will run from December 2023 to November 2027. The project manager for EIHP is Hrvoje Dorotić, and the project partner from Croatia is HEP. EIHP and HEP will explore using geothermal and solar energy in combination with seasonal heat storage tanks to decarbonize the centralized heating system in Zagreb.
ABOUT THE PROJECT:
USES4HEAT (full name: Underground Large Scale Seasonal Energy Storage for Decarbonised and Reliable Heat) will demonstrate two innovative, cost-effective, large-scale seasonal underground thermal energy storage (TES) units to maximise the availability and resilience of heating supply, reducing significantly both energy losses and environmental impacts. The two TES units will be fully connected to large-scale district heating networks (DHN) able to accumulate various sustainable sources of heat (waste heat, solar thermal and hybrid, geothermal, power-to-heat). Six additional key enabling innovative technologies ensuring maximal optimisation as well as sector and system integration will also be developed along the TES. AI, big-data analytics driven and cloud-based O&M algorithms will maximise the efficiency of the TES, ensuring a more reliable and efficient future heating system.
Achieving a climate neutral economy by 2050, as set out in the European Climate Change Act and the European Green Deal, is a major challenge requiring the decarbonisation of European heating and cooling. In this sense, district heating and cooling is recognised as a key solution as it allows the integration of renewable energy sources and the use of various forms of excess and waste heat, while contributing to the stability and coupling of energy systems. To fully capitalise on this untapped high potential of DHN, the vast deployment and integration of large scale, seasonal TES solutions will be essential.
In line with the Horizon Europe’s (HE) Cluster 5 Strategic Plan, USES4HEAT is going to contribute to the “Clean and sustainable transition of the energy and transport sectors towards climate neutrality facilitated by innovative crosscutting solutions” developing and demonstrating solutions which could be exploited also for other sectors.
Read more about the project HERE.
