Find us at EnerGaïa, Hall B1, stand D30
The EnerGaïa Forum runs on 9 and 10 December at the Parc des Expositions in Montpellier, and we'll be in Hall B1 on stand D30 for both days.
The Caldera Storage Boiler is also a finalist for the Trophées de l'innovation EnerGaïa 2026 in the International category.
What IF26 is
IF26 is the second heat auction run under the EU Innovation Fund, which is financed from EU ETS allowance auctions. The Commission's planned budget is €1 billion.
If you run process heat, four things about it matter:
- It opens in December 2026 and is planned to close in February 2027.
- It's open to projects of any size, in every industrial sector, across the European Economic Area.
- It explicitly covers electrified heat, including thermal storage and electric boilers, alongside direct renewable heat and nuclear.
- Heat from as low as 80°C can now qualify, which brings a lot of food, beverage and light process heat into scope for the first time.
Successful bidders receive a fixed premium for each tonne of direct CO2 they abate, for up to five years, and member states can add national top-ups through Auction-as-a-Service.
Why flexibility is in the design
The Commission has said that solutions which reduce electricity demand at peak times will attract additional incentives in this auction.
That matters, because it describes exactly what thermal storage does. A direct electric boiler draws its full rated power the moment the process asks for steam, which puts demand where the grid least wants it. A Storage Boiler charges when there's surplus power on the system and delivers the steam later, which puts demand where the grid can best take it.
We're not going to put a number on what that's worth to a bid. The detailed scoring sits in the auction's Terms and Conditions rather than on the call page, and we'd rather say nothing than give you an unchecked figure to build a bid on.
What this means for a French site
France is well placed for electrified heat even before any subsidy. A large share of French power is already low carbon, so moving a process from gas to electricity cuts emissions straight away, without waiting for the grid to decarbonise around you.
What IF26 changes is the capital case rather than the carbon case. A fixed premium for up to five years lands on the part of the business case that's hardest to justify internally: the first few years after the spend.
The French national information webinar for IF26 took place on 30 October. If you missed it, the call documentation is the place to start, and the deadline is closer than it looks if your project still needs a technical concept.
What we build
A Caldera Storage Boiler is an electric boiler with thermal storage and controls built in. It charges when electricity is cheapest and delivers saturated steam at up to 16 barg (204°C), over 95% dry, with 94% round-trip efficiency and a discharge response of under 60 seconds.
Because charging and discharging are decoupled, your electrical import is sized to your average load rather than your peak steam demand, which is what allows many sites to electrify within the grid connection they already have.
It integrates directly with your existing steam plant and runs alongside your current boilers, so you can turn a gas boiler down rather than switch it off. Each Heat Cell stores 5 MWh with 2 MWe of charging, and systems scale from 5 MWh to beyond 100 MWh.
If you're considering a bid
Start with your load shape. Send us twelve months of half-hourly demand data and we'll simulate a Storage Boiler across all 8,760 hours of a year against real price signals, so you can see how it would perform before you write a word of your bid.
Or come and find us at EnerGaïa, Hall B1, stand D30, on 9 and 10 December.
About this analysis
The IF26 details are taken from the European Commission's own IF26 heat auction call page: a planned €1 billion budget from EU ETS allowance auctions; a call planned to open in December 2026 and close in February 2027; open to projects of all sizes in every industrial sector across the European Economic Area; covering electrified heat (including heat pumps, thermal storage and electric boilers), direct renewable heat and nuclear; heat from as low as 80°C eligible; a fixed premium per tonne of direct CO2 abated for up to five years; national top-ups through Auction-as-a-Service; and additional incentives for flexibility solutions that reduce electricity demand at peak. The final Terms and Conditions were published on 24 September 2026, and the French national information webinar was held on 30 October 2026.
Our point that a large share of French power is low carbon is a general one rather than a quantified claim, so we haven't given a grid carbon intensity figure.
The product specifications are Caldera's published figures. Caldera's industrial-scale demonstrator at Fareham has met its targets every year since 2024.
