Our heat pump plays a key role in the award-winning project
Thermo Road

At METRO THERM, we’re incredibly proud to have been part of the ambitious demonstration project Thermo Road – a project that has just received the prestigious “Lighthouse Heat Pump Award” from the European Heat Pump Association (EHPA).

In this article, you can learn more about how intelligent heat pumps and smart climate adaptation have laid the groundwork for a breakthrough in collective heat supply.

Hedensted Municipality has recently established a so-called “thermal road” – the first of its kind. It’s located on Vestergårdsmarken in the town of Hornsyld, where 12 houses now receive both heating and cooling through a thermonet. The project was developed in cooperation between Hedensted Municipality and seven other private and public partners and is supported by the Energy Technology Development and Demonstration Programme (EUDP).

A thermonet is essentially a collective version of the familiar ground-source systems. Instead of each house having its own ground loop, several houses are connected to a shared pipe network, allowing thermal energy to be distributed between multiple homes in an efficient and flexible way.

New solution renews the thermal network

The thermonet itself isn’t a new invention – but the way the network is constructed is however. In the new Thermo Road project, a roadbed has been created – an underground stormwater basin that protects against flooding during cloudbursts and can retain rainwater equivalent to more than what is currently considered a “100-year event.”

Besides contributing to local climate protection in the event of cloudbursts, the stored rainwater also helps supply energy to the 12 houses. This happens via shared ground loops placed in the stormwater basin and three vertical geothermal drillings that are connected to the homes.

Each house is equipped with a compact, energy-efficient geothermal heat pump – our METRO Delta.

The illustration shows how the Thermo Road concept functions as both a renewable collective heating and cooling supply and a solution for handling extreme rainfall. Image courtesy of Termonet Danmark.

Image courtesy of Termonet Europe.

Thermo Road is a solution for the future

The Thermo Road project demonstrates, at full scale, how energy-efficient collective heating via a thermonet can go hand in hand with a climate-adapted road that protects houses from flooding and heatwaves.

For that reason, the project received the prestigious “Lighthouse Heat Pump Award” from the European Heat Pump Association (EHPA) in September 2025—an award given to projects that demonstrate high levels of innovation, integration with other renewable energy sources, and cost-reduction potential within heat pump technology.

At METRO THERM, we’re extremely proud that our METRO Delta has played a central role in the now award-winning demonstration project Thermo Road.

The award is an important recognition of how Danish technology can contribute to tomorrow’s energy solutions—and underlines our ambition to create products that are reliable in operation, energy-efficient and sustainable.

You can learn more about the project right here →

Project partners

At METRO THERM, we would like to thank the following for the great collaboration: