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SOTHERCO

Compact Thermal Energy Storage

 Period

2012-2017

 Context

More than 30% of the energy consumed in Europe is used for heating buildings and domestic hot water. Solar energy is an interesting solution for achieving the European Union's objectives of reducing primary energy consumption by 20% and producing 20% of energy consumption from renewable sources. The use of solar energy makes it possible to supply heat in a simple and efficient way. But a conventional solar installation does not achieve energy autonomy in heating and domestic hot water because of the gap between the availability of solar energy and heating needs. In order to increase the solar fraction of such systems, it is therefore necessary to integrate a seasonal storage device. The surplus solar energy available in summer will meet the heat needs of buildings in winter. Sorption thermal storage is a very promising solution for compact and efficient seasonal storage.

 Objectives

The objective of the project is to design, model, dimension, control and evaluate a compact, modular and innovative inter-seasonal sorption storage system capable of meeting the heating demand of a low energy building. Reagents, configurations and systems will be selected on the basis of the state of the art in order to improve their operation in real conditions. In addition to laboratory scale tests, two prototypes will be integrated into complete systems capable of meeting the demand for a low energy building. They will be installed at two different locations, in Arlon (Belgium) and Bourget du Lac (France) and tested semi-virtually over a long period.

 Specific BEMS Tasks

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Project Coordinator

Bureaux d’Etudes Solaires sprl (BESOL)

Strategic Partners
  • Austrian Institute of Technology GmbH (AITech)

  • Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines Institut Lavoisier(UVSQ)

  • Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique et aux Energies Alternatives (CEA)

  • Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB)

  • Université de Liège - BEMS

  • Université de Mons (UMons)

Methodologic Partners

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