QUIET aims at developing an improved and energy efficient electric vehicle with increased driving range under real-world driving conditions. This is achieved by exploiting the synergies of a technology portfolio in the areas of: user-centric design with enhanced passenger comfort and safety, lightweight materials with enhanced thermal insulation properties, and optimised vehicle energy management. The developed technologies will be integrated and qualified in a Honda B-segment electric vehicle validator. Among these, a novel refrigerant for cooling, combined with an energy-saving heat pump operation for heating, advanced thermal storages based on phase change materials, powerfilms for infrared radiative heating, and materials for enhanced thermal insulation of the cabin will be investigated. Further focus is put on lightweight glasses and composites for windows and chassis, as well as light metal aluminium or magnesium seat components. Optimized energy management strategies, such as pre-conditioning and zonal cooling/heating the passenger cabin as well as user-centric designed cooling/heating modules will further enhance the thermal performance of the vehicle. These strategies will be seamlessly implemented in an intelligent vehicle control unit enhanced by a novel Human Machine Interface, which, beyond being intuitive and user friendly, will also consider diverse users’ needs, accounting for gender and ageing society aspects. The objective of QUIET is to reduce the energy needed for cooling and heating the cabin of an electric vehicle under different driving conditions, by at least 30 % compared to the Honda baseline 2017. Additionally, a weight reduction of about 20 % of vehicle components (e.g. doors, windshields, seats, heating and air conditioning) is also addressed. These efforts will finally lead to a minimum of 25 % driving range increase under both hot (+40 °C) and cold (-10 °C) weather conditions.

The mission of HYSTORE is to develop and validate an innovative set of TES concepts, based on the combination of cutting-edge technology components: ALL-IN-ONE PCM solution, LOW-TEMP PCM HEATING&COOLING solution, PCM HEATING solution and TCM HEATING&COOLING solution. The four novel concepts attain different applications on heating/cooling (H/C), DHW configurations, and further set up optimal conditions for the provision of hybrid – meaning energy and power- services thanks to the development of a smart aggregator and an open-source multi-service platform. The main key features of HYSTORE are: • Technological advancement of thermal energy storage (TES) with up to +150% energy density and -50% CAPEX compared to state-of-art (SoA) • Significant lower design and installation effort thanks to pre-defined and standardized guidelines; • allow TES to be coupled and integrated with grid-level aggregators that can be federated in the context of both single buildings and local energy communities • 4 use case application in different climates both for District Heating/Cooling connected and non DHC-connected buildings with high-impact and replication potential. • LCOS in line with EU targets from IRENA annual reports and SET-plan. HYSTORE puts TES sytems in the path of 0,05€/kW/cycle over around 0,04 €/kWh by 2030, which is competitive with batteries. To reach these goals, HYSTORE leverages on a consortium of 18 entities from 8 different EU countries, highly qualified and leaders in their sectors of activity. This consortium covers the whole value chain of the thermal energy storage, technologies for its interconnection with the grid and its optimal operation by exploiting the flexibility resources. The final goal for HYSTORE is to realise the paradigmatic shift of thermal storage from an auxiliary service to the HVAC system to a service for the building to provide the needed comfort with high efficiency while supporting the grid for effective electric-thermal sector coupling.

Buildings account for around 40% of total energy use and 36% of CO2 emissions in Europe . According to the recast Directive on the energy performance of buildings (EPBD) all new buildings after 2020 should reach nearly zero energy levels, meaning that they should demonstrate very low energy needs mainly covered by renewable energy sources. EU 2030 targets aim at least 40% cuts in greenhouse gas emissions (from 1990 levels), at least 32% share for renewable energy, at least 32.5% improvement in energy efficiency , and 80% reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2050 . Therefore, an urgent need is present for a deep market transformation by deploying efficient materials and technologies in the construction sector to support the real implementation of nearly zero-energy/emission and plus-energy buildings with high indoor environment quality across Europe. As energy consumption of buildings depend strongly on the climate and the local weather conditions, additional aspects arise (such as environmental, technical, user experience, functional and design aspects) on the selection of the appropriate material and technical components installation for a successful implementation of nZEBs. Further, this selection of materials and design for climate should be based on a circular economy perspective considering environmental, economic and social effects along value chains. Better utilisation of products and resources via reuse-repair-recycling is essential in achieving a transformation from a linear to a circular economy model. Many of the current materials and technical systems still have varying degree of difficulty in accomplishing a circular perspective. Material and technical system development in a ZEB framework should focus on building thermal performance improvement, high quality of indoor environment according to occupants’ comfort and health needs, while reducing the emission intensity in terms of production, maintenance, assembling and operation.