New innovation hub in Denmark: Digital Energy Hub established to digitalize the energy sector

Denmark is already well-advanced in the use of green energy, but digitalization of the energy sector will be crucial for the green transition. The sector currently suffers from a severe lack of digital innovators, which is a challenge in reaching Denmark’s 2030 target of 70 % reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. Data-driven solutions can ensure that the Danes' consumption is regulated according to demand and that the electricity network remains stable during the transition from fossil to renewable energy.

Therefore, the Danish Industry Foundation has joined forces with a number of strong partners - Center Denmark, Energy Cluster Denmark, DigitalLead, SDU, DTU, AU, AAU, and Innovation Centre Denmark Silicon Valley - to create Digital Energy Hub, which over the next three years with a total budget of 33 million will future-proof Denmark's positions of strength within energy technology by boosting the digital competencies in areas such as Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.

The aim is to ensure the development of future growth companies in the field of energy technology. This will be achieved by facilitating new interdisciplinary collaborations and innovation sprints for SMEs and large companies, which will foster the development of competitive, digital businesses that drive innovation across different sectors and strengthen the development of new technologies, including data-intelligent solutions, service platforms and new business models.

Innovation Centre Denmark Silicon Valley acts as an internationalization partner, supporting the Digital Energy Hub and Danish companies with access to international ecosystems. Building bridges to innovation hubs internationally provides valuable insights and connects the Digital Energy Hub to international networks. For the users of the Digital Energy Hub, the internationalization activities will support them on their (potential) internationalization journeys. Furthermore, Innovation Centre Denmark Silicon Valley will support the DEH in attracting international stakeholders to engage with the hub in Denmark.

Digital Energy Hub provides access to data and research environments

"At Center Denmark, we have established a digital infrastructure to support the energy sector in the green transition, and we have collected large amounts of data from district heating, water and electricity from both production and consumption. With the establishment of Digital Energy Hub, we can effectively bring data into play at SMEs and larger companies in new solutions. For data to create value, it needs to be applied in new commercial business models and technologies, and transferred to companies so that it can support the development of solutions for the green transition in the energy sector," says Søren Skov Bording, CEO, Center Denmark.

Center Denmark will continuously expand the data platform with more data sources collected with full level of detail so that they can be easily correlated with other relevant data sources such as BBR, market data and weather data etc. after which the data sets will be anonymized and made available.

Data alone does not do it, which is why the technical universities and strategic partners of EWII and HOFOR provide research and testing environments for the participating companies. The hub intends to build a strong entrepreneurial and industrial environment that can bring data into play in the development of green digital business models that will make Denmark's energy sector the most sustainable in the world.

Join us for the kick-off event in AI Innovation House, Vejle – April 21, 2022

As an SME or entrepreneur in Tech and Energy, you can now get support to develop new digital solutions that can accelerate the green transition in the energy sector. On Thursday April 21, 2022, the first of several events will take place. All interested companies and organizations can participate for free. The partners of Digital Energy Hub emphasize that it is crucial to bring together both large energy companies, entrepreneurs, and tech companies. The intention is to get many of the tech and energy companies on board right from the start. The kick-off seminar aims to build relationships and provide inspiration for data-driven innovation.

The seminar will introduce the ideas and ambitions behind the hub, as well as the partners, followed by pitches by the strategic partners (Energinet, EWII, etc.), and finally the participants will get an insight into the processes of innovation sprints and the technology transfer from research to agent-based simulation of the ecosystem.