Building Thermal Muscle of Smart Cities with ThermoVerse

ThermoVerse is a US-based startup focusing on sustainable applications in smart cities with the LATCHES, a programmable, zero-footprint solid-state battery for HVAC peak load management. As one of the winners of the IC Taiwan Grand Challenge Batch 4 in the Sustainability category, ThermoVerse's LATCHES utilizes advanced Phase Change Materials (PCM) governed by high-precision parametric control to function as a solid-state thermal battery.

Power Optimization in Smart Cities is Key to Sustainability

According to the US EPA, residential and commercial buildings in general contribute up to 31% of global overall CO2 emissions. Another report by the UN Environment Progamme placed the number higher at 34%. Among the key emission sources is HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) system which is commonly “dumb” and reacts to thermostat changes with high-energy surges. In general residential cases, sustaining adequate cooling or heating has already become a challenge and can potentially strain the power grid in localities with aging power infrastructure. As cities and localities now are also aiming to build modern data center to leverage the popularity of AI, this will further exacerbate the strain as cooling and climate control accounts for up to 40% of the total energy consumed by data centers. For both residential and commercial applications, ThermoVerse's LATCHES (Large-Area Transactive Cooling & Heat Energy Storage) provides a zero-footprint buffer and transforms every square inch of a room's surface into an active, programmable thermal regulator.

Introducing IC Taiwan Grand Challenge

To strengthen Taiwan's position as a global semiconductor powerhouse, the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) organizes the IC Taiwan Grand Challenge. Started in 2024, the competition originally focused purely on innovative IC designs and advanced application solutions. Today, ICTGC also honors teams in the fields of AI Core Technologies and Chips, Smart Mobility, Smart Manufacturing, Smart Medtech, and Sustainability, which can support and contribute to the semiconductor industry and Taiwan's industry in general. ThermoVerse is selected as one of the winners of ICTGC Batch 4, featuring their LATCHES in Sustainability category.

Achieving Energy Savings with a Zero-footprint, Rechargeable, In-unit Solution

Founded in 2022 by PhD engineers, ThermoVerse is a Detroit-based climate-tech venture born from the Urban Tech Collaborative. Combining their expertise in thermodynamics, building science, and industrial scaling, ThermoVerse specializes in transitioning laboratory-grade Phase Change Materials (PCM) into commercially viable building products. They have already secured pilots within a 19 million sq. ft. commercial building corridor in the Great Lakes region with their LATCHES technology, creating the "thermal muscle" of the smart building.
LATCHES (Large-Area Transactive Cooling & Heat Energy Storage) utilizes proprietary advanced Phase Change Materials (PCM) governed by high-precision parametric control to function as a solid-state thermal battery, allowing for programmable charge and release cycles. When combined with ThermoVerse's Silicon-to-Physics interface, an integrated controller that manages charge/discharge cycles to shift HVAC loads, users can replace mechanical HVAC with programmable thermal storage, achieving 20-60% energy savings with a zero-footprint, rechargeable, in-unit solution.
ThermoVerse is the first to commoditize Solid-State Thermal Storage and miniaturize their controller while integrating it into flexible materials, creating a Smart Wallpaper that transforms every square inch of a room's surface into an active, programmable thermal regulator. Through this development, the building's interior skin effectively becomes a distributed energy storage system that is non-flammable, has a 20+ year lifespan, and requires no specialized deployment space.