News

In this new campaign, we focus on terminologies that are key for our project – and the sector as a whole. Let’s start with TES…

📥 Thermal Energy Storage is the storage of thermal energy for later reuse. Employing widely different technologies, it allows surplus thermal energy to be stored for hours, days, or months.
Scale, both of storage and use, varies from small to large – from individual processes to district, town, or region. Usage examples are the balancing of energy demand between daytime and nighttime, storing summer heat for winter heating, or winter cold for summer cooling. How? By heating or cooling a substance so the energy can be used when needed later.

In RE-WITCH, partners will develop and demonstrate innovative thermally-driven technologies into four demonstration cases in Spain, Poland, Greece and Italy.
TES will allow these demo cases to manage heat and cold energy flows for their processes by efficiently storing high-temperature heat (50-200°C) and cold (-35°C to 5°C), helping manage fluctuations in cooling and heating demand thus enhancing energy flexibility.

And then…?
☀ In the context of RE-WITCH, there is a clear connection between TES and solar thermal collectors. The solar thermal collectors capture solar energy, which can then be stored using TES systems. The High Vacuum Flat Panels (HVFPs) will be manufactured by our Swiss partner TVP SOLAR SA, the only company worldwide that produces HVFPs and offers turnkey solar thermal systems for industrial-scale applications.

TES allows the storage of heat from the solar collectors and provides flexibility by releasing the stored energy when needed, even during periods when solar energy isn’t available (e.g., at night or during cloudy days). This combination enhances energy efficiency and flexibility in industrial processes by ensuring a continuous supply of thermal energy.

Optimised techno-economic integration between low-grade (<100 °C) industrial waste heat and high-efficiency vacuum flat plate solar collectors will drive process cooling generation and provide process heating. Specific tools will support determining the solar thermal system layout, the integration within the industrial environment as well as with the other technologies. The integration routes will be tested and modelled with BIM modelling.