News

Luxembourg accelerates energy transition with innovative research lab

  • Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust (SnT)
    27 January 2025
  • Category
    Research
  • Topic
    Autonomous Systems, Computer Science & ICT

Researchers advance the energy transition through an interdisciplinary lab combining smart technology, digital twins, and real-world testing solutions.

The energy landscape is rapidly evolving, and Luxembourg’s research community is stepping up to meet its energy transition challenges. Researchers at SnT launched a state-of-the-art energy research facility that transforms their entire building into a living laboratory.

Modern energy transition challenges demand innovative approaches to questions like dependence on renewables, grid resilience, and consumption optimisation. Researchers face a complex web of environmental, technical, social, and economic factors. The new lab is an interdisciplinary approach to these challenges.

Powering research through smart infrastructure

The lab is a joint initiative of the Ubiquitous and Intelligent Systems (UBIX) and the Digital Financial Services and Cross-Organisational Digital Transformations (FINATRAX) research groups. It serves as a comprehensive testbed for energy projects.

The facility’s nerve center extends throughout the SnT building, creating an interconnected web of monitoring systems. A 20 kWp rooftop solar installation works in concert with weather stations, while advanced sensor networks track power usage, climate conditions, and occupancy patterns across SnT offices. The system interfaces directly with the building’s electrical infrastructure, creating a comprehensive energy monitoring ecosystem.

Building a digital twin of the SnT building

With its numerous entry points, the lab’s extensive data collection capabilities enable researchers to construct something remarkable: a digital twin of the SnT building on Kirchberg. This virtual replica serves as a powerful tool for studying consumption patterns, evaluating interdependencies across factors, and simulating new initiatives.

“How can we optimise the energy efficiency of the SnT building, and how do external factors such as temperature and rainfall affect our consumption? These are just two examples of the questions that the lab will allow us to address,” says Raphaël Frank, Head of the UBIX research group, who leads the lab together with Gilbert Fridgen, Head of the FINATRAX research group. “Once we gather the data, we can use artificial intelligence to optimise our appliances, so that they automatically switch on or off based on our energy production or consumption,” he adds.

The digital twin will also serve as a model for socioeconomic studies and support industrial optimization initiatives through the SnT Partnership Programme. This technology could also be used in the context of environmental research collaborations with the University’s new Luxembourg Centre for Socio-Environmental Systems (LCSES).

A glimpse into the future of energy transition

The growing electrification of the economy adds new urgency to the energy transition, as it increases demand while renewable energy sources remain variable in their output. Consider electric vehicles: most charging occurs during evening hours when electricity demand peaks. This timing often requires additional power from fossil fuel plants, creating a counterintuitive environmental impact and straining the power grid. To counter these patterns, grid operators and the Luxembourg Regulatory Institute recently introduced additional fees for users who run energy-intensive equipment at peak hours.

The lab’s research addresses these real-world challenges through various approaches, from data science applications to AI and machine learning algorithms for automated optimisation. This new facility builds upon years of research expertise in energy transition optimization, providing a real-world testing ground for theoretical models.

Moving forward, the research team will focus on scaling these innovations to support broader energy transition initiatives across Luxembourg and beyond.