The Drilling technology that is currently used for installation of vertical borehole heat exchangers requires capital-intensive equipment that is expensive to mobilize, leads to deteriorated working conditions and requires experienced teams of specialist operatives. Drilling operations also often require significant quantities of drinking quality water and dispose of dirty water and mud. GEOT€CH will employ a different drilling concept that is based on dry auger methods that requires less capital-intensive equipment, enhances safety and avoids the environmental risks, complexity and costs of dealing with water supplies and contaminated waste. Another key concept of GEOT€CH will be a better integration between heat exchange elements during installation by developing an innovative heat exchanger allowing to achieve high levels of thermal performance with low pressure loss. This device employs a co-axial configuration and spiral fluid flow pathways to achieve low thermal resistance compared to conventional U-tube devices. Furthermore, GEOT€CH aims to implement cost-effective geothermal systems by alleviating the costs associated with drilling boreholes in large size buildings. The GEOT€CH’s approach seeks the maximum use of the foundation structures that are otherwise required, exclusively, for structural and geotechnical purposes in tertiary buildings. Foundation structures such as piles, screen walls and basement slabs will become effective geothermal heat exchangers in GEOT€CH. GEOT€CH will develop optimized hybrid solutions that will integrate the different geothermal systems in small and large buildings market. The optimization of geothermal system operation will be achieved with the Energy Management System and the development of a dual source heat pump capable of making optimal use of ground and/or air environmental heat sources. The GEOT€CH’s geothermal heating and cooling standard will be more attractive to design professionals and construction companies.

HYPERGRYD aims at developing a set of replicable and scalable cost effective technical solutions to allow the integration of RES with different dispatchability and intrinsic variability inside Thermal Grids as well as their link with the Electrical Grids, including the development of innovative key components, in parallel with innovative and integrated ICT services formed by a scalable suite of tools for the proper handling of the increased complexity of the systems from building to Local Energy Community (LEC) levels and beyond, accelerate the sustainable transformation, planning and modernization of District Heating and Cooling (DHC) toward 4th and 5th generation. HYPERGRYD also aims at developing real time management of both electrical and thermal energy flows in the coupled energy network complex, including the synergies between them. Therefore, HYPERGRYD aims at three over-arching General Objectives: - To prove Smart Energy Networks as the future of Efficient Energy Management in DHC in synergy with the Electrical Grids in LEC/Smart Cities of the future, - To define the roadmap to design and planning of future DHC as well as the modernization of the existing ones in different climates and RES penetration levels toward 4th-5th generation, -To demonstrate HYPERGRYD RES-based Enabling Technologies, Smart Energy Grid Solutions empowered by new ICT tools and services as the key for this evolution. During the project, the HYPERGRYD?s solutions will be implemented across 4 Live-In-the-Labs cases in 3 representative climates provided by the consortium, with special consideration to their cost effectiveness and potential replicability to finally achieve these 3 main objectives. All these tasks will follow the proposed work program activities to ensure systematic and scientific performance measures, feedback and powerful exploitation.

The mission of HYSTORE is to develop and validate an innovative set of TES concepts, based on the combination of cutting-edge technology components: ALL-IN-ONE PCM solution, LOW-TEMP PCM HEATING&COOLING solution, PCM HEATING solution and TCM HEATING&COOLING solution. The four novel concepts attain different applications on heating/cooling (H/C), DHW configurations, and further set up optimal conditions for the provision of hybrid – meaning energy and power- services thanks to the development of a smart aggregator and an open-source multi-service platform. The main key features of HYSTORE are: • Technological advancement of thermal energy storage (TES) with up to +150% energy density and -50% CAPEX compared to state-of-art (SoA) • Significant lower design and installation effort thanks to pre-defined and standardized guidelines; • allow TES to be coupled and integrated with grid-level aggregators that can be federated in the context of both single buildings and local energy communities • 4 use case application in different climates both for District Heating/Cooling connected and non DHC-connected buildings with high-impact and replication potential. • LCOS in line with EU targets from IRENA annual reports and SET-plan. HYSTORE puts TES sytems in the path of 0,05€/kW/cycle over around 0,04 €/kWh by 2030, which is competitive with batteries. To reach these goals, HYSTORE leverages on a consortium of 18 entities from 8 different EU countries, highly qualified and leaders in their sectors of activity. This consortium covers the whole value chain of the thermal energy storage, technologies for its interconnection with the grid and its optimal operation by exploiting the flexibility resources. The final goal for HYSTORE is to realise the paradigmatic shift of thermal storage from an auxiliary service to the HVAC system to a service for the building to provide the needed comfort with high efficiency while supporting the grid for effective electric-thermal sector coupling.

Large parts of sub-Saharan Africa have no or only limited access to the electricity grid. Therefore, many farmers cannot adequately cool their product. This results in an enormous loss and waste of food, which is responsible for more than 10% of total anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. Cooling the food by inefficiently using generators on fossil fuels – the most common alternative – is not climate friendly either. AGRI-COOL will address both problems with a containerized solution in which food can be stored and cooled. It combines the use of photovoltaic technology, thermal energy storage by phase change materials, chillers, and smart control strategies to offer an affordable, scalable and climate friendly solution. The AGRI-COOL system will be demonstrated in rural communities in South Africa, Cape Verde, Somalia, and Zimbabwe to showcase its adaptability to different climatic conditions. A life cycle assessment following the cradle-to-grave approach will be conducted to show the system’s impact on environment and Paris targets compared with competing approaches. A comprehensive market and business strategy will be developed for adoption of the system after the project. Training programs for farmers, technicians, and engineers that are tailored to local conditions will ensure that the system can be installed, operated, and maintained locally. Lastly, an advanced course for third party engineers from various African countries will be organized on the design, customization, and broader economic and social aspects of the system. AGRI-COOL is going to empower rural African communities and industries by enhancing food security, reducing waste and fostering economic growth while contributing to achieve the African countries’ targets of the Paris Agreement. A balanced consortium with about the same share of person months and budget for African and European partners ensures that African problems are tackled by solutions tailored to African conditions.