The main aim of CREATE is to develop and demonstrate a heat battery, i.e. an advanced thermal storage system based on Thermo-Chemical Materials (TCMs), that enables economically affordable, compact and loss-free storage of heat in existing buildings.
Concept, Objectives and Methodology
The CREATE technology is a compact thermal energy storage system for the buildings sector. It will be the game changer in the transformation of our existing building stock towards near-zero energy buildings. The project will release the full potential of renewable energy by enabling effective integration of heat storage into Europe’s building stock.
The buildings sector accounts for the largest share of energy consumption (Europe wide approx. 37%). As two third of the building stock in 2050 is made up of currently existing buildings, the solution should be realized with the current building stock. The CREATE project aims to tackle this challenge by developing a compact heat storage module.
The heat battery targets three breakthrough elements:
-Economical affordability: for the existing building stock we will reach at least a reduction of 15% of the net energy consumption with a potential Return-On-Investment shorter than 10 years
-Compactness: novel high-density materials will be used in order to limit the use of the available space to a maximum of 2.5 m3 thermochemical material
-No heat losses during storage: this is an intrinsic material property of thermochemical storage technology, thereby enabling long-term storage
Start date: 1st October 2015
Duration: 48 months