HORIZON-CL5-2027-02-D3-07
Concentrated solar thermal systems for decarbonising industrial processes -
Call text (as on F&T portal)
View on F&T portalExpected 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.
News flashes
Opening date: 2026-12-03 (1 month from now)
Closing date: 2027-03-31 (5 months from now)
Procedure: single-stage
Budget: 12,000,000
Expected grants: 2
Contribution: 6,000,000 - 6,000,000
This call topic has been appended 0 times by the EC with news.
HORIZON-CL5-2027-02
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Timeline
Work programme published · 03 Oct 2026 (6 days ago)
Next: Call opens, 1 month from now (03 Dec 2026)
Call published
12 Dec 2025
Work programme published
03 Oct 2026 · est.
Call opens
03 Dec 2026
Call closes
31 Mar 2027
Outcome expected
31 Aug 2027 · est.
Grant agreement signed
01 Dec 2027 · est.
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Call published
12 Dec 2025 · 9 months ago
This topic was first published in TopicTree.
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Work programme published Estimated
03 Oct 2026 · 6 days ago
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Call opens
03 Dec 2026 · 1 month from now
Submissions can be made from this date.
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Call closes
31 Mar 2027 · 5 months from now
Deadline to submit a proposal.
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Outcome expected Estimated
31 Aug 2027 · 10 months from now
The maximum time to inform applicants of the evaluation outcome is five months after the call closes.
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Grant agreement signed Estimated
01 Dec 2027 · 1 year from now
The maximum time to sign the grant agreement is three months after applicants are informed of the outcome.
Funded Projects
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Project information comes from CORDIS (for Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe) and will be sourced from F&T Portal (for Digital Europe projects)
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