Barocal's EIC Accelerator Cools by Squeezing a Solid

Every fridge and air conditioner on earth works the same way: compress a gas, let it expand, move heat. The gases are efficient and most of them are powerful greenhouse gases that leak. Barocal, spun out of the University of Cambridge in 2019 by the materials physicist Xavier Moya, replaces the gas with a solid: barocaloric materials change temperature when put under pressure, so the refrigerant is a block of organic material with, as the company puts it, zero global warming potential and nothing to leak.

The EIC Accelerator selected the project, BAROCAL, at its October 2024 cut-off as a grant-only award, and CORDIS records €2,447,375 from July 2025 to June 2027. The targets are specific: 75% less CO2 than the market standard, two to three times the energy efficiency, a coefficient of performance comparable to vapour compression, a 40 degree temperature range and 1,000 watts of cooling power in a modular unit, plus demonstration projects that gather customer return-on-investment data.

A prototype, and what it has not done

The project states that the prototype already has a high coefficient of performance comparable to vapour-compression units, which is the number that decides whether solid-state cooling is a curiosity or a product. What the project also makes clear is what remains: the 40 degree range and 1,000 watt target are development goals, not achievements, and the demonstration projects that would produce customer data are a deliverable rather than a result. CORDIS shows no periodic report.

The claim that will matter most commercially is the one the company's investors highlight and nobody has verified: cost parity with vapour compression. Replacing a mature, mass-produced technology on efficiency alone has defeated many cooling start-ups; doing it at the same price would be a different proposition.

A seed round from the climate funds that matter

On 4 May 2026 Barocal announced a $10 million seed round from World Fund, Breakthrough Energy Discovery, Cambridge Enterprise Ventures and IP Group, which contributed £2 million, for engineering hires and senior technical and commercial staff ahead of commercial deployment. Breakthrough Energy's involvement, following earlier support through its Fellows programme, and the $1 million TERA-Award in 2025 are the kind of third-party validation a hardware company at this stage can point to.

"Heating and cooling have always been the elephant in the room when it comes to emissions," founder Xavier Moya said. World Fund's Mark Windeknecht put the technical claim more strongly: "Barocal has achieved what scientists have struggled to do for decades." The sources differ on how big the emissions problem is, with heating and cooling put at about 15% of global greenhouse gas emissions in one account and nearly half in another, which is worth noting when a company's market framing is quoted.

1. Working barocaloric prototypeReportedCoefficient of performance described as comparable to vapour compression.
2. 40 degree range at 1kWIn developmentStated as a development target in the project.
3. Customer demonstrationsNot reportedThe main deliverable of the grant.
4. Cost parity with vapour compressionUnprovenA design aim cited by investors, not a measured result.

A British company funded by a European grant

Barocal is one of the cut-off's UK beneficiaries, eligible because the UK is associated to Horizon Europe, and its underlying science was paid for partly by the European Research Council. The award is grant only, with no EIC Fund equity, which for a company that raised its seed round from private climate funds a year later looks like the right instrument: the EU money buys demonstrations, the venture money buys engineers. Refrigerant gas phase-downs under the F-gas rules are tightening across Europe, which is the regulatory pressure that makes a gas-free cooling cycle worth funding.