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Welcome to SAPHEA!

SAPHEA Project

👉 Check out the video about the project here

Heating and cooling account for half of the EU’s total energy consumption, making them the largest end-use sector—surpassing even transport and electricity. Despite this, around 75% of heating and cooling is still produced from fossil fuels, with only 22% coming from renewable sources. District heating and cooling networks powered by renewables present a sustainable and efficient alternative, and geothermal energy, in particular, offers a stable, zero-emission solution for both heat supply and underground storage.

However, geothermal-based heating and cooling networks (geoHC networks) remain a niche, covering just about 1% of the European market—primarily due to non-technological barriers.

SAPHEA aims to change this by supporting the wider adoption of multivalent heating and cooling networks powered by geothermal energy. At its core, SAPHEA creates a durable digital market uptake hub, offering practical toolboxes, guidelines, and training resources to support early-stage investment decisions and strategic planning. By adapting and building upon existing tools (such as Hotmaps and EnerMaps), SAPHEA provides tailored support for local authorities, community services, and energy suppliers across Europe.

Through hands-on training, scenario development, and region-specific roadmaps, stakeholders will be empowered to take full advantage of their geological and socio-economic contexts. SAPHEA also fosters a vibrant community of public and private actors, ensuring knowledge exchange and collaboration beyond the project’s lifetime.

Check out the website by clicking here.

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SAPHEA Tool

The SAPHEA Toolbox is a digital decision-support tool designed to accelerate the adoption of geothermal energy in multivalent district heating and cooling (geoHC) networks across Europe. It brings together data, evaluation routines, and planning tools into one easy-to-use platform.

What can it do?

  • Assess potential for geothermal heating and cooling in different regions
  • Evaluate options using both techno-economic and socio-economic criteria
  • Support planning with scenario development tools
  • Import and process spatial data, from pan-European to local level
  • Connect existing open-source tools, such as Hotmaps, EnerMaps, and TUW-Geophires

Who is it for?

The toolbox is tailored for:

  • Local authorities and municipalities
  • Energy utilities and planners
  • Community service providers
  • Researchers and consultants

Users will also benefit from training materials and hands-on guidance, helping them make informed decisions aligned with their region’s unique geological and social context.

Figure The SAPHEA Tool SAPHEA Tool

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SAPHEA Wiki

The SAPHEA Wiki hosts the documentation, guidance and manual of the SAPHEA toolbox. It consists of the following main parts:

  • Datasets section presents the catalogue of spatial datasets created during the SAPHEA project. These pan-european datasets help the characterisation of geothermal resource and planning for underground thermal energy storage.
  • Single Market Uptake Hub section describes the online platform for easy access to data, tools, financing and policy guidance, real-world case studies, and tailored scenarios to support the stakeholders interested in geothermal energy planning and deployment. This section also contains the description of the Gamebook which provides an interactive guide to the tools produced by SAPHEA.
  • SAPHEA Tool Overview and User Guide demonstrates the key capabilities, user interface and navigation, core functionelities and general workflow of the SAPHEA Tool.
  • Calculation Modules of the SAPHEA Tool explains in detail the Calculation Modules of the SAPHEA Tool.
  • Learning Center introduces the user the full training material of the project.

These sections are accessible in all Wiki pages in the sidebar.

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How To Cite

Ardak Akhatova in SAPHEA-Wiki, Welcome to SAPHEA

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Authors And Reviewers

This page was written by Ardak Akhatova e-think.

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License

Copyright © 2025: Ardak Akhatova

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 International License.

SPDX-License-Identifier: CC-BY-4.0

License-Text: https://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-4.0.html

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Acknowledgement

We would like to convey our deepest appreciation to the HORIZON Europe Actions SAPHEA Project (Grant Agreement number 101075510), which co-funded the present investigation.

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