Concentrated solar thermal systems for decarbonising industrial processes
Forthcoming
Status as published by the data source.
Expected Outcome:
Renewable heating can be directly used to efficiently decarbonise industrial processes. Concentrated solar thermal technologies offer a great potential to supply renewable heat for industry for temperatures between 150°C - 400°C. Nevertheless, efforts are still required to demonstrate these technologies for a variety of industrial processes.
Proposals are expected to contribute to all the following outcomes:
• Showcase the capacity of concentrated solar thermal systems to largely meet the heat demand of industrial processes and to achieve a yearly solar fraction of at least 50%.
• Increase competitiveness of concentrated solar thermal for industrial applications. This is to be proven by an economically feasible business case; by reducing the Levelised Cost of Heating (LCoH); and by valorising and promoting the competitive advantages of the technology such as heat storage, flexibility, and energy security. Scope:
The proposals are expected to demonstrate concentrated solar technologies for heat production (within the 150°C - 400°C range), combined with storage, feeding the generated heat to existing heating and/or cooling processes in industry, e.g., drying, melting, sterilisation, refrigeration, etc.
The proposals are expected to efficiently integrate the solar heat system in the selected industrial application. To a possible extent, the proposals should optimise energy efficiency and heat recovery of the industrial process to maximise the coverage of the heat demand by the solar system and to ensure an efficient solar investment. Hybridisation with other on-site renewable energy technologies could be considered. However, the core solutions are expected to focus on the concentrated solar thermal part and not on the industrial process or on the hybrid renewable energy technologies.
The proposed solution is expected to be demonstrated in all possible solar incidence, and for a continuous period of at least 6 months. The replicability potential to other industrial processes should also be taken into account.
The proposals are expected to address the techno-economic feasibility and the environmental impact of the proposed systems, as well as specific issues related to the integration of the solar systems in the industrial process such as surface availability.
The proposal is expected to include a clear go/no go milestone before entering the deployment phase. Before this go/no-go milestone, the project is expected to submit: i) a proof of solid engagement of the industrial demonstration party, ii) all needed permits for deployment, iii) credible and detailed engineering plans, and iv) a complete business and implementation plan.
The use of the European Research Infrastructure for concentrated solar power EU-SOLARIS is encouraged but not mandatory.
Technology Readiness Level - Technology readiness level expected from completed projects
Activities are expected to achieve TRL 7 by the end of the project – see General Annex B. Activities may start at any TRL.
- Status
- Forthcoming
- Deadline
- (time not stated)
- Opens
- Published
- Total budget
- €12,000,000
- Grant range
- €6,000,000 – €6,000,000
- Country
- European Union (EU-wide)
- Programme
- Horizon Europe (HORIZON)
- Official page
- Open at the source portal
Other calls under Horizon Europe (HORIZON)
- PV based electrification of the economy: Designing & optimising PV systems supporting industrial electrification and promoting participation in electricity markets (EUPI-PV Partnership)
- Advanced TSO control rooms to enhance grid observability, stability and resilience
- Advanced Distribution Management Systems (ADSM) for more efficient and flexible distribution grids
- Community of practice - Data-Driven Decision-Making in Energy
- Industrial processes and equipment for innovative, reliable and scalable tandem technologies (EUPI-PV Partnership)
- Integrated Approaches for Retrofitting Infrastructures with Innovative Energy Storage Technologies
- Demonstration of hydropower technologies for efficient and forward-looking refurbishment of existing hydropower plants
- Delivery of industrial CCUS clusters – Societal Readiness pilot
All calls under this programme
Similar opportunities
- Full-scale demonstration of heat upgrade solutions in industrial processes
- Demonstration of industrial excess/waste heat conversion to mechanical or electrical power
- Efficient energy input from renewable sources and energy management in the process industries (IA) (Processes4Planet and Innovative Advanced Materials for the EU partnerships)
- Thermal energy optimisation and waste heat recovery of high energy demand IT rooms in buildings or small edge data centres
- Industrial manufacturing for lower-cost solar thermal components and systems
- Novel thermal energy storage for CSP
Where this came from
- Source document
- https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/data/topicDetails/horizon-cl5-2027-02-d3-07.json
- Document fingerprint
6cd48334c6a52204(SHA-256, first 16 hex characters)- Retrieved
- First recorded here
What has changed
- url first recorded as https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/portal/screen/opportunities/topic-details/horizon-cl5-2027-02-d3-07 on
- currency first recorded as EUR on
- amount_max first recorded as 6000000.00 on
- amount_min first recorded as 6000000.00 on
- budget_total first recorded as 12000000.00 on
- deadline first recorded as 2027-03-31 on
- opens_on first recorded as 2026-12-03 on
- published_on first recorded as 2025-12-12 on
- status_basis first recorded as source_status on
- status first recorded as forthcoming on
- title first recorded as Concentrated solar thermal systems for decarbonising industrial processes on
Data source
© European Union, 2026. Source: EU Funding & Tenders Portal. Reused under Commission Decision 2011/833/EU — CC BY 4.0.
Retrieved from the source on .
The source last updated this document on Thu, 25 Jun 2026 12:26:42 GMT.
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