Sea for Heritage Energy Transition

About this project

<p>Sea for Heritage Energy Transition - SEAHEaT project promotes the use of marine heat energy through heat pumps in energy renovation projects of buildings that represent cultural assets. The Republic of Croatia has an extremely high density of such facilities, and their concentration is particularly pronounced in the coastal area. Sea for Heritage Energy Transition - SEAHEaT project is applied for by the Special Hospital for Orthopedics and Rehabilitation “Martin Horvat” Rovinj-Rovigno. The partner consortium includes a donor partner from Norway, Apenhet AS, IRENA - Istrian Regional Energy Agency d.o.o., Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture and the Faculty of Mining, Geology and Petroleum Engineering, University of Zagreb. Although Croatia has decades of experience in using seawater as a heating or cooling energy source through heat pumps, the systems are not very widespread, despite the huge potential of the Adriatic coast. This area also includes a large number of consumers, especially in the tourism sector, who require significant amounts of energy. Precisely due to the weak market share and poor visibility of this technology, cooperation with a donor partner is required, which should share its experiences, but also learn from Croatian partners. The Norwegian heat pump market is much more developed than the Croatian one. However, only a small portion of waste is on water-to-water systems. According to data, 105,000 heat pumps were sold in 2019, and it is estimated that around 1.2 million heat pumps have been installed throughout Norway. For the needs of the pilot project, two buildings of the Special Hospital for Orthopedics and Rehabilitation "Martin Horvat" in Rovinj were selected. It is planned to install four inverter heat pumps (25 - 100 kW of nominal heat output each).</p>

Bilateral cooperation results

Partnerships contributed to the results with the experience of the project partner and their expertise, which allowed us to better execute the project. The main challenge was the language barrier regarding the technical names of certain items, but it was successfully overcome thanks to all project partners and their commitment to the project implementation.

Project partners

• ÅPENHET AS Donor project partner· Norway
• IRENA - Istrian Regional Energy Agency Ltd. Project partner· Croatia
• Geology and Petroleum Engineering, University of Zagreb Project partner· Croatia
• Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture Project partner· Croatia