Bessieres

Thanks to its agricultural heritage, Bessières is ideally positioned to host an innovative project aimed at establishing a local and sustainable circular economy, connecting producers of residual heat and consumers of cold.

The Bessières Energy Recovery Unit (UVE) is a household waste treatment center.

The facility processes approximately 196,000 tons of waste annually, producing electricity and heat.

Some of this heat is recovered through a greenhouse heating network. Nevertheless, the recovery remains limited and a large part of this heat is still lost and released into the air.

Les Serres de Bessières, located a few hundred meters from the UVE (Waste-to-Energy Unit), is a market gardening operation specializing in the production of greenhouse tomatoes. The greenhouses cover 10 hectares of land for an average annual production of 6,000 tons of tomatoes. The need to maintain an adequate temperature for tomato preservation presents a major environmental challenge: significant cooling requirements. Indeed, refrigeration systems, although essential for preserving the quality of the tomatoes, contribute to energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.

With its “Low Heat to Cold” (LH2C) thermal battery technology, Water Horizon will distribute renewable cold from waste heat from the WTE plant.

The LH2C battery is charged by heat from the UVE. Once full, it is used on the same site to provide cooling.