About this project

What is "ORC"?

The Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) technology is a way to convert heat into electricity. Its main applications are distributed electricity generation from renewable heat sources (geothermal, biomass, solar) and industrial energy efficiency (heat recovery from industrial processes).

More information about the technology can be found on Wikipedia or at the Knowledge Center on ORC.

What is this?

The ORC World Map aims to monitor the progress of the Organic Rankine Cycle technology over the world.

The objective is to provide an overview of the ORC market, at the industrial level. This means that small ORC plants at the lab scale or that are not connected to the grid have been ignored. An exception has been made for demo plants that are not connected to the grid but have a significant power output of several hundreds kilowatts / several megawatts.

Some manufacturers do not publish their list of references and declined to take part to that survey. Therefore, this database is not 100% exhaustive.

Why did you make it?

The ORC technology is not very well-known and and the number of power plants that are based on that technology is underestimated. Combining all the known references onto one map can increase public awareness and motivate new motions and incentives favorable to ORC.

Where did you get your data from?

Most of the data used is publicly available on manufacturers' websites, through press articles or scientific papers. When possible, multiple sources have been used in order to cross-reference the information. The author thanks all the manufacturers that have taken part to that survey by sending their list of references.

My ORC plant is not in the list, can I add it?

Even if a lot of time and rigour has been spent trying to list all the ORC references, some information may be wrong or missing. Feel free to contact the author (see below) and changes will be made as quick as possible.

What did you use to build it?

Technologies used:

Project History

  • A first website was developed by Thomas Tartière in 2016
  • In parallel, Marco Astolfi built his own database of ORC projects
  • In September 2017, M. Astolfi and T. Tartière combined their data and published an overview of the ORC market at the IV International Seminar on ORC Power Systems, in Milano
  • 2018: Google retired the Fusion Table service that the map was built on. The site ceases to work.
  • 2021: A new version of the site is built and released with an updated database.

Credits

This site was built, designed and hosted entirely by Thomas Tartière in his own free time for no money.

Thank you to Marco Astolfi from University of Milano for keeping the database up to date !

Thank you to the ORC manufacturers that have taken part to the survey by sending their list of references :

Special thanks to Tianhang Qi from Enertime for helping to get the data from Chinese manufacturers.

Contact the Author

You can send me a message from the contact page.


Disclaimer

The information contained in this website is for general information purposes only. While the author endeavours to keep the information up to date and correct, the author makes no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability or availability with respect to the website or the information, products, services, or related graphics contained on the website for any purpose. Any reliance you place on such information is therefore strictly at your own risk.

In no event the author will we be liable for any loss or damage including without limitation, indirect or consequential loss or damage, or any loss or damage whatsoever arising from loss of data or profits arising out of, or in connection with, the use of this website.