Imagine a geothermal power plant that acts like a smart battery for a city. Instead of just making electricity, it can switch to heating homes or cooling buildings depending on what is cheapest or most needed at that moment. It uses special thermal storage tanks to save energy for later, making the whole system much more flexible.
Geothermal plants typically run in a rigid baseload mode, making them unable to respond to changing electricity prices or specific heating and cooling demands.
A trigeneration system combining an Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC), thermal energy storage (HTES/CTES), an absorption chiller, and an AI-driven energy management system.
If you are a utility provider dealing with fluctuating energy prices and high heating demands — this project developed a trigeneration system that allows a plant to switch between power, heat, and cooling. This enables you to balance the grid and respond to market signals.
If you are an operator dealing with inflexible baseload plants that cannot respond to market fluctuations — this project developed an AI-based energy management system and thermal storage. This transforms your plant into a dispatchable source of energy.
If you are a facility manager dealing with high costs for cooling and heating — this project developed an integrated absorption chiller and thermal storage system. This allows for more cost-effective temperature control using geothermal resources.
If implemented across all EU ORC plants, the technology could deliver 215 TWht of heat, potentially saving € 9.6 billion per year on natural gas imports.
Yes, the project includes the validation of the complete system at an industrial-scale geothermal site located in Türkiye.
Based on available project data, specific licensing terms are not mentioned, but the project involves 5 industry partners and 3 SMEs developing the technical specifications and control logic.
The system uses an AI-based energy management system (EMS) that interacts with the day-ahead market and grid operators to schedule production based on predicted prices.
The project is active from June 1, 2024, to May 31, 2028.
The consortium is heavily industry-driven with a 71% industry ratio, consisting of 5 industrial partners (including 3 SMEs) and 2 research organizations. This strong commercial presence, spanning 6 countries (BE, DE, FR, IE, TR, UK), suggests a high focus on commercial viability and practical deployment rather than pure academic research.
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