To reduce fossil fuel use in the heating and cooling of buildings, clean technologies such as heat pumps need to double by 2030. However, heat pumps are limited require considerable space and cannot be easily installed in dense urban areas. In addition, geothermal technologies are generally applicable to new buildings, and existing buildings are difficult to transform, making it a limited solution. Since 2019, EPFL spin-off Enerdrape has been developing the first available geothermal panel to turn any underground infrastructure into a renewable heating and cooling source for buildings.
The start-up’s modular and scalable geothermal panels can be installed in an environment characterized by a constant temperature, such as underground parking garages, transportation hubs, metros, or tunnels, to provide the building with the benefits of a temperature exchanger. The heat exchanger invented by Enerdrape is a cost-effective and prefabricated geothermal technology that can be easily installed in both existing and new buildings.
Enerdrape’s geothermal panels display underground facilities’ enormous potential to heat and cool buildings. Its panels are easy to install and respond directly to the urgent need to save resource consumption. Considering this promising technology, Enerdrape has won the 2022 >>venture>> Grand Prize, the Prix Entreprendre Lausanne Region 2022 (PERL), and the Prix Start-Up Durable 2022 award.
Turning underground infrastructures into renewable energy sources
Hosted within the Laboratory of Soil Mechanics, the start-up has built its first Minimum Viable Product and launched a first pilot with REALSTONE AG in 2021. Now Enerdrape is conducting several pilot projects in Switzerland.
With the FIT Tech Seed loan, Enerdrape will be able to support the market launch of its product and ramp-up activities. In addition, it will help the cleantech start-up prepare a healthy ground for equity rounds and sales scale-up.
