Project description
Thermal energy storage system for greenhouse facilities
Ensuring a sustainable future for the world’s growing population requires increased food production and reduced resource consumption. Greenhouse-based horticulture provides higher quality and quantity of products compared to traditional agriculture and uses less water. However, greenhouse facilities require high consumption of electricity and gas. Netherlands-based company SOLHO has developed an innovative proprietary thermal energy storage system that allows a 24/7 energy supply. The EU-funded SPRHOUT project will work on the commercialisation strategy for the system in Europe, Africa and the Middle East through a B2B approach, targeting large global greenhouse manufacturers. The project will validate the system’s performance, assess the process’s economic performance indicators and refine the business plan.
Objective
There will be 2.5 billion more people living on Earth by 2050, dramatically pushing the need for agriculture to both increase food production and at the same time reduce resource-consumption in order to ensure a sustainable future for humanity.
Greenhouse-based horticulture could highly contribute to this goal, thanks to its unparalleled benefits in terms of reduced use of water and higher quality and quantity of product with respect to traditional agriculture. Nonetheless, greenhouse facilities need both huge amount of electricity and gas to be operated, accounting for energy consumption of about 3.4 MTOE per year only in Europe, which pushed European policy-makers to promote renewable-based energy solutions for the horticulture sector among the priorities.
SOLHO is a high-tech company incubated at Yes!Delft which developed an innovative and fully off-grid energy system called SPRHOUT, that uses solar energy to fulfil the energy needs of a greenhouse facility.SOLHO’s core innovation is a proprietary thermal energy storage system which allows round the clock operation of all other units, enabling 24/7 energy supply during the night or whenever the sun is not available.
We plan to market our SPRHOUT units by 2021 in Europe, Africa and Middle East through a B2B approach, selling the SPRHOUT system to large global greenhouse manufacturers, which will act as EPC contractors. Three global leaders of advanced horticultural projects have already expressed their interest in our solution. The Phase 1 project will be a launch pad for the future commercialization of the system, enabling SOLHO to validate the SPRHOUT performances and the market opportunity in key areas, assess the process’ economic performance indicators, and refine the business plan to attract the future investment needed for scaling up the system production.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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H2020-EU.2.3. - INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Innovation In SMEs
MAIN PROGRAMME
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H2020-EU.3. - PRIORITY 'Societal challenges
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H2020-EU.2.1. - INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
SME-1 - SME instrument phase 1
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) H2020-EIC-SMEInst-2018-2020
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
2629 JD DELFT
Netherlands
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.