Thermal energy optimisation and waste heat recovery of high energy demand IT rooms in buildings or small edge data centres

This Destination targets the energy demand side, notably a more efficient use of energy in buildings and industry. It contributes to the activities of the Strategic Energy Technology Plan (SET Plan) and its implementation working groups.

This Destination contributes directly to the Strategic Plan’s Key Strategic Orientations ‘Green transition’, ‘Digital transition’ and ‘A more resilient, competitive, inclusive and democratic Europe’.

In line with the Strategic Plan, the overall expected impact of this Destination is to contribute to the ‘Using energy in buildings and industry in an efficient, affordable and sustainable way’.

The main impacts to be generated by topics under this Destination are:

Highly energy-efficient and climate neutral European building stock

1. The energy performance of the European building stock is improved at an accelerated pace, contributing to the EU's energy security, while the buildings and the built environment have reduced climate and environmental impact throughout their life cycle.
2. The energy renovation and construction of buildings are cost-efficient, affordable and less disruptive.
3. The buildings are increasingly interacting with the users, energy system and their environment while operating in an integrated, resilient, secure, smart and flexible manner.
4. The buildings and the built environment are more climate resilient, accessible, inclusive and delivers multiple benefits which improve the quality of life, health and well-being for all users.

Industry

1. The energy efficiency of EU energy intensive industries is improved, their consumption of fossil fuel and their GHG and other pollutants emissions are drastically reduced, notably through cost-effective electrification, use of renewable energy, heat recovery, thereby preserving / enhancing their global competitiveness.

Legal entities established in China are not eligible to participate in both Research and Innovation Actions (RIAs) and Innovation Actions (IAs) falling under this destination. For additional information please see “Restrictions on the participation of legal entities established in China” found in General Annex B of the General Annexes.

Expected Outcome:

Project results are expected to contribute to all of the following expected outcomes:

• Improved open access to performance data, sharing of best-practices and useful knowledge and information for owners and operators of IT infrastructure, as well as the IT and building sectors;
• New designs of IT rooms in buildings or small edge data centres valorise waste heat through thermal management techniques, processes and tools.

Scope:

The growing energy needs of the ICT sector must be met while aligning with climate neutrality and sustainability goals. Small IT rooms or small data centres are an essential part of the twin green and digital transition. It is important to address the energy and resources consumption over the full ICT value chain. Solutions already exist, such as re-using waste heat from data centres, or moving towards circular models (longer lifetimes, reparability, reuse and recyclability). Most recent analysis suggests that the energy consumption of consumer devices in 2020 accounted for roughly 50% of the overall energy consumption of ICT technologies, with the two next largest contributors being respectively the production of ICT devices (~20%) and the operation of data centres (~15%)^[1]. Moreover, this is expected to change dramatically by 2030, as the overall energy consumption of ICT technologies is expected to increase by 50% over this decade. The Commission has set the strategic goal of ensuring that data centres are climate-neutral, energy- and resource efficient by 2030. However, most efforts are directed towards data centres in scope of the Energy Efficiency Directive recast.

Proposals should address all of the following:

• Demonstrate state-of-the-art holistic and cost-effective approaches to thermal management and excess heat recovery (optionally including heat storage and/or upgrade of heat) and re-use in local or nearby site creating effective added value in existing IT rooms in buildings or small edge data centres (in the range of 100-500kW, not covered by Energy Efficiency Directive recast), taking into account thermal envelope/building (by means of simulation or digital twins, among others), integration with building automation and control systems and potential to improve the self-assessment and self-optimisation functionalities at all levels, and integration into existing BMS allowing for further development of energy services. Demonstrators should be located in both cold and warm climate Member State or Associated Country to tackle climate specific challenges of thermal management of waste heat.
• Develop business cases for state-of-the-art solutions for excess heat recovery & re-use (optionally including heat storage and/or upgrade), for example by re-using excess heat in an existing system in the building (such as heating or water production purposes), or in a local district heating and cooling network, or in any other local or nearby site creating effective added value to the recovered heat.

Projects funded under this topic are encouraged to build synergies and leverage their outcomes with funded projects from Cluster 4 HORIZON-CL4-2027-04-DATA-09: Energy efficiency and sustainability of AI data processing in Data Centres (IA) demonstration pilots.

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[1] eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:52022SC0341