BEST-Storage

Buildings consume most of the world’s electricity, with up to 50% of it used to cover thermal demands, while the growing use of electric vehicles and heat pumps further affects electricity consumption and peak demand. The BEST-Storage project is an important step towards peak load reduction and shifting, energy saving and energy cost minimisation, by developing and demonstrating short- and long-term high-energy-density thermal storage solutions. A loss-free thermo-chemical (TCM) storage technology is developed for seasonal storage, while two phase change material (PCM) slurry concepts and a vacuum-insulated water storage are developed for cold and warm applications respectively, with the aim of shifting peak load demands. The storage solutions are integrated within smart building energy management systems featuring model predictive control (MPC) to reduce operation costs, and are demonstrated in four demo cases across Europe: three real demo cases (Spain, Estonia, Greece) at TRL 7 and one emulated, hardware-in-the-loop demo case at TRL 6.

CERTH is responsible for the demonstration and cost-effectiveness activities of the BEST-Storage solutions. ITI-CERTH contributes the preparation of the real demo cases, elaborating the complete KPI list tailored to each demo case, developing the monitoring and evaluation plan of the demonstrations and establishing the demo working groups with the most relevant stakeholders. ITI also coordinates the demonstration of the BEST-Storage solutions in real buildings at TRL 7, developing a monitoring and visualisation tool to share results with the partners and compare them with pre-intervention benchmark data, and is responsible for the Greek demo at the CERTH Smart Home in Thessaloniki, where the thermo-chemical and vacuum-insulated water storages are integrated into the building energy management system for heating and cooling.

Consortium

Solintel M & P SL, Spain
Fundacion Tecnalia Research & Innovation, Spain
Ethniko Kentro Erevnas kai Technologikis Anaptyxis, Greece
Technische Universitat Berlin, Germany
Fundacion Tekniker, Spain
Newton Energy Solutions BV, Netherlands
European Heat Pump Association, Belgium
Avanzare Innovacion Tecnologica SL, Spain
Mittetulundusuhing Tartu Regiooni Energiaagentuur, Estonia
Giroa Sociedad Anonima, Spain
OST – Ostschweizer Fachhochschule, Switzerland
Scuola Universitaria Professionale della Svizzera Italiana, Switzerland