Formally started on July 1, 2024, the Horizon Europe project “BREAKTHROUGHS IN THERMAL BATTERIES THROUGH ZERO-EMISSION HIGH-TEMPERATURE STATIC THERMAL-TO-ELECTRIC CONVERTERS” - BLAZETEC was officially launched with the Kick-off Meeting held in Rome-Montelibretti on July 4-5, 2024.

The primary goal is to validate two TRL 5 pilot plants of thermal batteries based on hybrid thermionic systems (thermionic-photovoltaic and thermionic-thermoelectric) for the storage and efficient management of thermal energy produced with concentrated solar radiation and electricity generated from renewable sources. BLAZETEC aims to develop innovative thermal batteries to increase the availability of renewable energy in future power grids.

The project, funded under Call HORIZON-CL5-2023-D3-03-01 - Topic: “Increasing the efficiency of innovative static energy conversion devices for electricity and heat/cold generation”, is coordinated by CNR-ISM with Daniele M. Trucchi as the lead. With a total budget of €3 million (including €717k for CNR-ISM), 5 Work Packages (4 R&D, 1 management), and a duration of 42 months, the project involves a consortium of 5 beneficiaries:

    CNR - Istituto di Struttura della Materia
    Universidad Politecnica de Madrid (Spagna)
    RGS Development (Pasi Bassi)
    Ionvac Process srl (Italia)
    The Cyprus Insitute (Cipro)

and 2 associated partners:

    CSEM (Switzerland)
    Termophoton (Spain).

During the kick-off meeting held on July 4-5, 2024, the partners met to share their expertise and knowledge to be applied within the project framework and to plan the activities for the next six months. 

Throughout the meeting, partners had the opportunity to visit the DiaTHEMA Lab at the CNR-ISM site in Montelibretti and enjoy a social dinner featuring Roman cuisine.