01 April 2025
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German industrial GEA is investing an initial £10 million (€12million) in British low carbon heat company Caldera with ambitious plans to help industry decarbonise.
Caldera has developed a unique Storage Boiler which takes low-cost renewable electricity and stores it as heat, ready to be used whenever required.
It is ideally suited to industries which currently use gas boilers to generate steam – including breweries, distilleries, food manufacturers and pharmaceuticals.
GEA plans to use Caldera’s technology as part of a holistic solution that allows industrial customers an affordable route to electrifying their heat.
In the UK around a fifth of all industrial energy demand is for heat up to 200°C – usually delivered as steam – and the majority of this heat is generated by gas.
Green electricity is affordable, but intermittent. By charging whenever the sun shines, Caldera’s boilers utilise cheap on-site solar power as well as green energy from the grid and store it as heat until it's needed – allowing industry to benefit from affordable green heat 24/7.
In many cases, Caldera’s Storage Boilers can be combined with GEA’s heat pumps to offer a compelling route to decarbonising industrial process heat: a combined system joins the benefits of a highly efficient heat pump with the flexibility and fast response time of a storage boiler.
The two companies claim these complementary technologies ‘radically alter’ the business case for going green – by making heat from low-carbon electricity cost competitive with fossil fuels.
“The market for industrial heat is changing fast. Decarbonisation isn’t a distant goal - it’s happening now,” says Kai Becker, CEO of GEA's Heating & Refrigeration Technologies Division.
“Across industry, we’re seeing major benefits in electrification and thermal storage, and at GEA, we’re moving decisively to lead this transition.
“Industrial heat demand—especially for steam up to 200°C—is one of the toughest areas to decarbonise. Caldera’s Storage Boiler can be combined with heat pumps to radically alter the business case for going green. With GEA’s global reach and expertise in industrial heating, we can accelerate the deployment of this solution to industries worldwide. That’s why we’re investing in Caldera.”
“The investment from GEA is a game-changing opportunity for our company and a strong endorsement of our technology. In addition there is a very strong cultural fit between both companies driven by sustainability and engineering excellence,” says Caldera CEO James Macnaghten.
“We look forward to seeing electric storage boilers become a widely adopted technology in industries from brewing and distilling to food and pharma, with the ultimate goal of reducing carbon emissions for the benefit of all,” Macnaghten concludes.
