It is a great honour for ExerGo to receive the prestigious Heat Pump City of The Year Award from the European Heat Pump Association.
This prize is an important milestone towards the recognition of our technology, the CO2 thermal network, as an efficient and ready-to-scale solution to decarbonize cities all around the world.
My deepest gratitude goes to my team, our investors and Sion pilot project partners who contributed to boost our development and commercialization.

Decarbuilding Award: ‘Water-Loop Heat Pump for heating systems retrofit in existing buildings‘ by INNOVA Srl. 

The prize was introduced by Malgorzata Smuczynska, Regional Sales Director EAST and MD at ESBE Hydronic Systems, and accepted by Ilario Zanetti, Presales Engineer at INNOVA Srl. 

This project was born under the firm belief that the global shift toward electric-based energy systems is crucial for decarbonisation, especially in existing buildings. The innovative water-loop heat pump air conditioning system employs a primary heat pump to generate water suitable for standard pipes and radiators, ensuring consistent temperatures (20-35 °C) throughout the year. Quiet <ater loop heat pump water/air heat pumps replace high-temperature terminals, preserving a neutral water loop temperature. The fact that existing piping is used minimises disruptions during upgrades. 

In order to decarbonise our building stock, we must equip large existing buildings with smart, clean heating and cooling technologies. Winning the DecarBuilding Award with our waterloop heat pump reinforces INNOVA’s core mission: to grow through innovation.

Decarbindustry Award: ‘How Bosch transformed the Eisenach plant into a pioneer in energy efficiency’, by Bosch.  

Introduced by Irene Egea Saiz, EU Projects Manager at EHPA, and accepted by Rudolf Marevic, Service and Portfolio Management at Bosch Sicherheitssysteme GmbH.

In this project, the Bosch Eisenach factory, formerly reliant on gas boilers and chillers, underwent a transformation to decarbonise its heating and cooling. It used  compressed air waste heat recovery and a heat pump, slashing annual CO² emissions by 2,400 tons, cutting gas consumption by over 90%, and lowering energy costs by approximately 600,000 euros. The site now boasts nearly carbon-neutral heating and cooling generation.

We are honoured to have won the decarbindustry award this year. We would like to reproduce this kind of project to other locations too, #LikeABosch.

Lighthouse heat pump Award: ‘Heat the streets’, by Kensa Utilities.

Introduced by Patrick Crombez, General Manager for Heating and Renewables, EMEA, at Daikin Europe, and accepted by Lisa Treseder, Director of Business development at Kensa Utilities.

The Heat the Streets project showcased the feasibility of retrofitting ground source heat pumps  to domestic properties at scale without a ‘fabric-first’ approach. It received partial funding from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and was conducted in rural Cornwall. The project demonstrated the potential for coordinated, mass deployment of  ground source heat pumps in a networked fashion, successfully installing the world’s first in-road retrofit of a shared ground array and providing ground source heat pumps to over 100 properties, including new builds and retrofits, advancing the UK’s net-zero heating goals.

At the #HPForum, financing of heat pumps was a top priority. The focus was on selling heat services rather than commodities, which is exactly what we did on Heat the Streets. By treating the ground array infrastructure as a utility asset, we make it easier for our customers to say yes to heat pumps. Our model mimics the arrangements we already have with the gas network, making it very familiar to British households.

People’s Choice Award: the most popular heat pump project: ’AHT Rottenmann - Decarbonisation Project: ​Gas Boiler Replacement’ by Daikin Europe. 

Introduced by Kaven Nourrice R&D Specialist at Frascold and accepted by Jan Logghe, Senior Manager at Daikin Europe. 

AHT Rottenmann’s forward-looking Decarbonisation Project involved replacing gas boilers with a cutting-edge heat pump cascade, delivering a total heating capacity of 1,200kW. This sustainable system caters to the production facility of the plant, office building, and domestic hot water needs, aligning with the company’s commitment to eco-friendly practices. 

We are exceptionally proud and thankful for the appreciation expressed by all the people who voted for our industrial heat pump project at AHT Rottenmann in Austria. Being awarded with the People Choice’s award shows our solutions to decarbonise the industry resonate with a wide audience, for which we are very grateful.

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The building heating and cooling sector in the EU is responsible for more than 30% of EU total carbon emissions.  The rising pressure to decrease energy dependence on oil and gas is increasingly pushing Swiss and European cities to look for innovative decarbonization solutions. District heating and cooling networks are recognized as the best available technology to achieve this goal. Currently more than 16’000 networks are already planned in European cities and will be built before 2030. Germany, a leading nation in the energy transition, has just approved a plan for the development of new districts including a 3 billion euro scheme to support district heating and cooling systems running on at least 75% of renewable energy and waste heat. One of the major challenges to the cost-effective implementation of these systems lies in the limited space available to deploy the district energy infrastructure.  

ExerGo brings to the market a compact and efficient energy infrastructure solution that allows to overcome the limitations of implementing district heating and cooling networks in dense urban areas. Just like in commercial and industrial cooling systems (supermarkets, ice-rinks, manufacturing), ExerGo relies on using CO₂ instead of water to distribute thermal energy. Thanks to the high thermal energy content of CO₂, ExerGo’s piping infrastructure is extremely compact with respect to a water-based heating and cooling networks with the same capacity. With its two-pipe thermal network, ExerGo can supply both heating and cooling energy, therefore allowing to simultaneously fight summer heat waves and ensure hot water needs of buildings, as well as provide heating during the cold seasons. The CO₂ is sourced from carbon capture technologies, remaining sealed in the system for the entire life of the installation, or up to 30 years. It can be recovered and reused afterwards. 

As a Swiss cleantech start-up, ExerGo works in collaboration with multiple research institutes in Switzerland, such as EPFL, HES-SO Sion and HEIG-VD in Yverdon-les-Bains. The start-up has just completed its pilot plant in Sion, thanks to a collaboration between industrial and research partners and with the support of the Swiss Federal Office of Energy. This project will serve as a showroom for customers and to demonstrate the energy efficiency of the solution. 

ExerGo is now aiming to replicate projects with early customers in commercial environments and to prepare for large-scale deployment.  

ExerGo’s solution combines market-available equipment, with a product deployment that fits existing industrial standards and benefits from existing supply chains, which is an important advantage for the market entry in view of the company’s internationalization phase. The system is compatible with both heating dominated or cooling dominated networks, attracting customers from various countries around the world. 

After obtaining a FIT Tech Seed loan in 2020, the new FIT Tech Growth loan of CHF 500’000 completes a fundraising round from corporate and private investors. This will allow to grow its team to 15 employees by the end of 2022 and to invest for the product industrialization as well as the market entry in Switzerland and globally. It will also serve to drive innovation and work on the improvement and extension of the product functionalities that have already been identified. 

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ExerGo’s technology uses captured CO2 and turns it into a working fluid for energy transport in district heating and cooling systems. Following ten years of R&D efforts at Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), this innovative technology has been patented internationally. The CO2 runs through a flexible pipe system connecting buildings with renewable resources and waste heat sources combined with standard heating or cooling pumps and exchangers. This increases the energy efficiency, making decarbonization of thermal energy servicesin dense urban areas more affordable, accessible and reliable.

ExerGo’s CO2 network has up to ten times higher energy density than water-based ones. As a result, the engineering, procurement and construction of its system ensures significant savings in energy, and installation cost and time. The pilot plant in Sion (Valais, Switzerland) uses CO2 to source low-temperature energy from the underground water table and distributes it to the three buildings’ heat pumps and exchangers of this providing heating and cooling services all year round.

Supplying equivalent amounts of heating power as for cooling, the solution is scalable in various climate zones. After the installation in Sion, ExerGo won the first tender with a leading utility in Switzerland, and multiple commercialization projects are under way.

Alberto Mian, CEO, ExerGo:

“Our ready-to-deploy CO₂ loop technology is a stepping stone in the energy transition. It is a safe, sustainable and scalable solution for a wide range of urban and industrial applications. Using renewable resources and waste heat we are ensuring a consistent and reliable flow of energy services to the communities that we serve. We thank our new investors Baker Hughes and EREN Groupe for contributing to our mission.”

Luca Maria Rossi, VP New Frontiers, Baker Hughes:

“Our investment in Exergo shows our ongoing commitment to advancing technologies that will help achieve climate targets. ExerGo’s innovative concept of using CO2 as a working fluid can unlock a wide range of industrial applications, including emissions capture and storage, and geothermal heating. This investment will also benefit from Baker Hughes’ decades of expertise in oilfield services, equipment manufacturing and digital solutions.”

Pâris Mouratoglou, Founder and Chairman of the Supervisory Board, EREN Groupe:

“ExerGo brings a unique solution for more compact and efficient urban energy networks. The technology demonstrates a great potential to accelerate the implementation and renovation of urban district cooling and heating networks. Combined with renewable thermal energy sources, this system brings the opportunity to significantly reduce the cost and carbon footprint of distributed energy use in cities. We are thrilled to partner with the professional and expert team of ExerGo”.

This round of fundraising will enable the company to continue advance its technology, gain new customers and expand its business internationally. It will also help strengthen ExerGo’s competitive edge through further technical developments in tight cooperation with strong industrial partners.

About ExerGo (www.exergo.ch):

Harnessing renewable resources and waste heat, ExerGo is turning captured CO2 into a dense, low-temperature fluid. Its heating and cooling solution saves 80% of primary energy and can save up to 100% of CO2 emissions compared to traditional fossil-fuel based systems. In addition, compared to low-temperature water networks it is ten times denser saving implementation time and cost. ExerGo is committed to provide affordable and reliable green energy services to communities around the world.

Learn more about ExerGo on www.exergo.ch, and by following us on LinkedIn.

About Baker Hughes (www.bakerhughes.com):

Baker Hughes (NASDAQ: BKR) is an energy technology company that provides solutions to energy and industrial customers worldwide. Built on a century of experience and conducting business in over 120 countries, our innovative technologies and services are taking energy forward – making it safer, cleaner and more efficient for people and the planet. Visit us at bakerhughes.com

About EREN (www.EREN-groupe.lu/):

Founded more than 20 years ago by Pâris Mouratoglou, the EREN Group is a player dedicated to the preservation of natural resources. It remains the pioneer of renewable energies in Europe and today holds, through its subsidiary Total Eren, nearly 3.5 GWhs of renewable energy assets in operation or under construction across the five continents. At the same time, the EREN Group has developed expertise in reducing the energy consumption and therefore the carbon footprint of buildings, through the optimization of their control systems and the use of thermal geostorage. Finally, it has historically been a committed player in the worlds of sports and music, notably through the Patrick Mouratoglou Tennis Academy and the Medici company, the latter of which is the world leader in classical music.

Press contacts:

Brunswick: Agnès Catineau, EREN@brunswickgroup.com, Tel: +33 1 53 96 83 83

ExerGo: Felicia Noreskar, Communications and Marketing Manager, felicia.noreskar@exergo.com, Tel: +41 79 921 43 82

Baker Hughes: Adrienne Lynch, Sr. Manager, Media Relations, Adrienne.lynch@bakerhughes.com, Tel : +1 (713) 906-8407

EREN Groupe: Thierry Faugeras, Board Member, EREN Industries, thierry.faugeras@EREN-groupe.com, Tel: (+ 352) 28 56 24 203

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