SUNTHERM has developed a Worlds first 25 kWh thermal storage compact battery, based on salt hydrate dissolved in mineral oil that enables up to 25 hours of heat displacement (patent pending). SUNTHERM’s game-changer integrated heating system for households - SmartHeat - consists of: - Smart heating and heat storage, provided by a 25 kWh thermal battery (60 × 60 × 200 cm), coupled to a module of cloud-based management with an online control unit for real-time control over heat management, acting as a buffer in the grid; - Solar thermal collectors, for higher flexibility and 100% zero-carbon, sustainable heat production; - Heat pump, smart grid enabled, providing the management of energy loads - peak load shaving -, the storage of excess power during low demand periods for release during peak demand periods - load balancing -, and the integrated optimization of the heat pump operation. SmartHeat can effectively cover normal family's daily needs for radiators, floor heating or hot water, with a heat release capacity above any other heating unit available, due to its intelligent and huge storage capacity - equivalent to an oil burner in a utility room and delivery of twice the amount of hot water than a conventional hot water tank. By storing energy from the sun - or when the power is cheap - in our unique battery and delivering it when the house requires heating, we will offer the homeowner the opportunity to reduce the heat bill by 75% in comparison to the use of an oil burner, due to 40% increase in efficiency vs. a stand-alone heat pump. Through the successful development and implementation of SmartHeat WWF award winning technology, SUNTHERM will be in a strong position to exploit a market worth at 34.5 billion € and enhance its profitability by the stream of the sales, with an expected cumulated turnover of 70 million €, 5 years after project completion.

The 2018 EPBD update identifies deep renovation as key to drastically reduce energy demand and achieve the EU vision of a decarbonised building stock by 2050. The technology to achieve this reduction is available on the market today. Renovation rates are still far from the target 3% and shallow retrofits persist with low impacts on energy consumption. StepUP will develop a new process for deep renovation for decarbonisation, with fast design to operation feedback loops to minimise performance gap and optimise investments. The project will deliver plug&play technologies for minimal disruption, interconnected for maximum impact on energy, costs, IEQ and user comfort. The new iterative approach to renovation, based in big data for continuous performance improvement, will reduce financial barriers and make decarbonisation of existing buildings a reliable, attractive investment. StepUP will: 1. Make renovation more attractive and reliable with a new methodology based on near-real time data intelligence to identify cost-optimal, high impact interventions at any stage of the building life; 2. Reduce the performance gap to 10% via an integrated life-cycle software platform to plan renovation steps, identify high value ECM, improve IEQ, integrate RES (including storage) and optimise operations by constantly refining and verifying targets and constraints; 3. Minimise time on site to 40% by advancing innovative technologies for deep renovation to a market-ready renovation package of Plug & Play Technologies, including RE generation and storage for decarbonisation; 4. Optimise renovation investments via innovative financing models for optimisation of energy, comfort and cost performance over the building life, based on progressive financing and building performance as a service; 5. Accelerate the renovation market via an open protocol for interoperability of the StepUP solutions with third party market products, fostering a plug&play environment accessible to innovative SMEs.

The aim of the SERENE project is to develop and demonstrate sustainable, integrated, cost-effective and customer-centric solutions for local communities. The idea is to integrate different energy system carriers and new renewable generation units in the local communities based on their social and technical status today to meet their energy needs in the coming years. The users has to be involved in the changes of the energy system and be informed about different technical opportunities and business cases to make decisions about their participation. Depending on the actual site, the new energy system involve different storage technologies (battery energy storages, heat storages, water storage-systems), demand response systems to enhance the flexibility of the systems (activating for instance electric vehicle charging stations and heat demand supplies), electric transportation systems like electrical vehicles or buses, heating system improvements using heat-pumps and integration of new renewable generation sources mainly in form of photo voltaics. The SERENE project will establish demonstrations in local villages in three European countries - Denmark, The Netherlands and Poland. The experiences gained at the demonstration sites will be analyzed and evaluated for replicability in firstly Europe but also world wide. Technical benchmark models and solutions will be set up together with their business models, and it is evaluated how different legal aspects form the involved countries will affect the possibility for replication. Further, the needed user involvement and their interest to join are evaluated seen from both geographic, social, environmental and economic conditions and characteristics.

Digitisation in existing buildings is not as widespread as in other sectors. A consequence is that buildings owners and occupants have generally a limited understanding of their building as an energy system. Improving the energy efficiency of existing buildings can and should be achieved through deep renovation. In comparison, smart technologies can increase the efficiency and the flexibility of buildings in a shorter term and with much less investments. The domOS project addresses the smart building sector through two axes. In the first axis, technology, guidelines for an open, secure, multi-service Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem for smart buildings are defined: in-building gateways, which connect to local smart devices and smart appliance of any type, IoT platforms and applications operated by different parties can be integrated seamlessly. Buildings owners can enforce privacy rules, they can allow / forbid access to any measurement or control point. The second axis deals with the development of smart services. They increase energy efficiency of space heating (heat pumps, district heating, gas boilers) thanks to innovative control algorithms making use of smart sensors and smart heating appliances. Automated advice services provide concise and sound information on the building energy. Buildings become active nodes of an electricity grid or a District Heating grid. These two axes are present in each of the five demonstration sites of the domOS project: The Sion (CH) and Paris (F) pilots test smart services related to electricity. In Aalborg (DK), control techniques applied to space heating for buildings connected to a Distributed Heating grid reduces consumption and lower costs, CO$_{2}$ emissions and system load. In the Neuchâtel (CH) and Skive (DK) demonstrators, closed-loop control minimises temperature at the output of the heating system, thus increasing efficiency and reducing losses.

SUNTHERM has developed a Worlds first 25 kWh thermal storage compact battery, based on salt hydrate dissolved in mineral oil that enables up to 25 hours of heat displacement (patent pending). SUNTHERM’s game-changer integrated heating system for households - SmartHeat - consists of: - Smart heating and heat storage, provided by a 25 kWh thermal battery (60 × 60 × 200 cm), coupled to a module of cloudbased management with an online control unit for real-time control over heat management, acting as a buffer in the grid; - Solar thermal collectors, for higher flexibility and 100% zero-carbon, sustainable heat production; - Heat pump, smart grid enabled, providing the management of energy loads - peak load shaving -, the storage of excess power during low demand periods for release during peak demand periods - load balancing -, and the integrated optimization of the heat pump operation. SmartHeat can effectively cover normal family's daily needs for radiators, floor heating or hot water, with a heat release capacity above any other heating unit available, due to its intelligent and huge storage capacity - equivalent to an oil burner in a utility room and delivery of twice the amount of hot water than a conventional hot water tank. By storing energy from the sun - or when the power is cheap - in our unique battery and delivering it when the house requires heating, we will offer the homeowner the opportunity to reduce the heat bill by 75% in comparison to the use of an oil burner, due to 40% increase in efficiency vs. a stand-alone heat pump. Through the successful development and implementation of SmartHeat WWF award winning technology, SUNTHERM will be in a strong position to exploit a market worth at 34.5 billion € and enhance its profitability by the stream of the sales, with an expected cumulated turnover of 83 million €, 5 years after project completion.