Reflecting on Progress and Planning Ahead

“I'm quite happy to see how elderly tenants get involved in an innovation project of this typology. Since the early beginning that we agreed on setting this community of owners as a pilot, they have closely followed up the advances and collaborated in whatever we have needed. Deploying the 8th General Assembly in their unique facilities has been a luxury.” Says Guillermo Andres Nieto, Head of Energy, Recycling and Valorization Innovation Proposals at Veolia, and Coordinator of the ThumbsUp project. 

During two days partners shared the latest developments of the work they have been carrying out for the past four years, discussed the challenges they have been facing and agreed on potential solutions and way forward for the remaining months of the project. It provided a unique opportunity for participants to see how their respective work fits into the greater picture of the project as a whole – particularly now that the FractLES and SorTES solutions have been installed in the three demonstration sites. 

“It was very rewarding to see the SorTES tank installed and running in an actual single-family home. It has taken may years of research and collaboration with many different actors, beyond the scope of the ThumbsUp project, to develop this technology and now it is a reality. There are still a number of challenges to face, but at least we will be able to measure and monitor the performance of this complex and innovative technology in a real-life environment.” Says Andrea Frazzica, senior researcher at CNR and leader of the work package that developed the SorTES modules. 

An important part of the meeting was dedicated to the lessons learned from the testing carried out to validate the porotypes, to the installations in real life environments to demonstrate FractLES and SorTES solutions do work in different climates and type of buildings.  

“Even though it is the same technology, the process and installation of the FractLES modules installed in the Spanish multifamily building are rather different, but complementary, than the ones in the Swedish HSB Living Lab. It’s interesting and instructive to see the details in real life.” says Ola Gustafsson, project manger at RISE and responsible for the installation and monitoring of the FractLES tanks in the student apartment building located in Gothenburg, Sweden. 

Some of the most encouraging presentations were from the work package responsible for the impact and replication assessment. These included a lifecycle assessment by CERTH, market analysis by Veolia, potential impact on thermal networks by Gradyent and on the electricity net with peer-to-peer trading in energy communities by Grid Singularity. The techno-economic studies conclude that bill savings do not justify installation under the conditions analysed. However, commercial prospects depend on access to additional value streams such as self-consumption rewards, energy communities and paid flexibility services. Along with these identified incentives, the ThumbsUp TES solutions show great potential to reduce district-heating peaks by around 15–35%, lower network temperatures and support heat-pump integration. 

“Now it's time to face the last stage of the project, and definitely disclose the potential of the ThumbsUp solutions.” Concludes Mr. Andres Nieto. 

As encouraging as this successful progress may be, there is still a lot to be done as we wrap-up the project in the coming months and even after the project comes to an end in June 2027. One of the key actions which was also made clear is the need to continue with the collaboration efforts in the TES Cluster and ensure it may live on after the founding projects come to an end. Stay tuned!