Pyrolysis, drone inspection and AI for maintenance: Here are the nominees for Innovation Project of the year 2026

More than 500 members of the Danish energy cluster will soon cast their votes to select the Innovation Project of the year. All members can vote for their favorite among three candidates, which will be presented at Energy Cluster Denmark’s Annual Meeting 2026 in Aalborg on May 13. The three project candidates have been selected from a range of innovation projects that over the past year have developed and tested energy technology solutions now ready for deployment.

This is according to Glenda Napier, CEO of Energy Cluster Denmark.

“I am proud of the tremendous effort and collaboration behind the innovation projects, which each year result in new green solutions that meet the real needs of the energy industry while delivering CO₂ reductions and increased growth. Together with all our members, I look forward to announcing this year’s winner at Energy Cluster Denmark’s Annual Meeting, where we bring together the entire energy sector for discussions and presentations on green innovation,” says Glenda Napier, CEO of Energy Cluster Denmark.

The nominees are…

This year’s nominated innovation projects all focus on increasing green energy production for the benefit of both industry and the climate. The projects have followed the energy cluster’s innovation model, ensuring that good ideas are transformed into developed solutions ready for the market. The partnerships span companies and knowledge institutions, with Energy Cluster Denmark facilitating the projects and supporting administration, networking, and communication.

The nominees for Innovation Project of the year are:

FOD4Wind
In FOD4Wind, partners developed and tested a fully autonomous drone-based solution for inspection and parcel delivery on offshore wind turbines. The drone can autonomously take off from a service vessel, deliver equipment or spare parts to an offshore wind turbine, and return to the vessel. While the turbine is already shut down for maintenance, the drone can also perform a visual inspection of blade damage.

The flexible solution reduces the need for personnel transport between vessel and turbine, leading to CO₂ reductions and significant cost savings for wind farm operators through increased efficiency. At the same time, it improves safety for crews during service and inspection tasks previously carried out using ropes and baskets.

The FOD4Wind partnership included Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy, Upteko, Esvagt, the University of Southern Denmark, and Energy Cluster Denmark. The innovation project received support from EUDP – the Energy Technology Development and Demonstration Program.

PACMAN
Through this innovation project, partners demonstrated a new AI-based 3D platform for monitoring and assessing corrosion, such as rust, on offshore installations including wind turbines, oil and gas platforms, and substations. The solution combines 3D scanning, LiDAR technology, and artificial intelligence into a single digital tool that identifies, locates, and evaluates corrosion damage.

PACMAN has shown that digital, predictive maintenance can replace a range of manual processes and significantly reduce time consumption and costs. Concrete results include a reduction in offshore transport of up to 67%, a 100% reduction in printed documents, and up to an 85% reduction in time spent across the entire process.

PACMAN was carried out in collaboration between Semco Maritime, IPU, MM Survey, Aalborg University, and Energy Cluster Denmark. The innovation project received support from EUDP – the Energy Technology Development and Demonstration Program.

SkyClean Scale-up
In October 2024, Stiesdal inaugurated the world’s largest pyrolysis plant (20 MW) in Vrå as part of the SkyClean Scale-up innovation project. The plant uses biogas residue fibers from the Agri Energy Vrå biogas facility and produces biochar for carbon storage and green energy to replace fossil fuels. Annually, the plant can store up to 28,000 tonnes of CO₂ through biochar production and displace natural gas equivalent to 9,500 tonnes of CO₂.

Researchers from five Danish knowledge institutions have studied everything from the stability and quality of biochar to its effects in agriculture, soil ecosystems, and the climate. The research confirms that biochar produced through pyrolysis provides stable long-term carbon storage in agricultural soil, while also improving soil quality and serving as an effective alternative fertilizer.

Partners in SkyClean Scale-up included Stiesdal, Agri Energy Vrå, KK Wind Solutions, Topsoe, the Technical University of Denmark, the University of Copenhagen, Aarhus University, Roskilde University, SEGES Innovation, Food & Bio Cluster Denmark, and Energy Cluster Denmark. The innovation project received funding from the Danish Energy Agency’s Pyrolysis Fund, financed by the European Union under the NextGenerationEU initiative.

Join us when we announce the winner
The winner of Innovation Project of the year 2026 will be announced at Energy Cluster Denmarks Annual Meeting on May 13 in Aalborg. All attendees on the day can vote for their favorite among the three nominated innovation projects.

The Annual Meeting is open to anyone interested in innovation and networking in the energy sector. Members of Energy Cluster Denmark can attend free of charge.

The programme is open to Danish SMEs within the green energy sector that has not yet been established or sold products in India.

India represents a significant opportunity for companies in the green energy sector. It is a fast-growing economy with strong demand for innovative energy solutions and an ambitious green transition agenda.

What participating companies can expect

Participating SMEs can expect support in several areas throughout the programme:

• Market understanding and insight into the Indian energy sector and its commercial landscape and relevant context.
• Strategy development, including support in defining a focused India engagement approach. The programme material notes that this may include priorities such as partnerships, manufacturing, and sales/distribution, depending on the company’s objectives.
• Access to experts and stakeholders, including workshops and discussions with sector, legal, and regulatory experts, as well as companies already active in India.
• Tailored business meetings and partner dialogue, including 1:1 meetings with potential partners relevant to the participating company.
• A dedicated visit to India, where participants engage directly with stakeholders in-market.
• Post-programme follow-up, helping companies build on the insights, relationships, and leads generated during the process.

The training is provided by experts from the Danish Innovation Centre in India.

The deadline for applications to the programme is June 1st 2026. Apply and learn more about eligibility and criteria using the form below.

To understand the causes and find shared solutions to the problem, Digital Energy Hub and HOFOR have over the past year brought together district heating companies, researchers, consultants, and building owners in a joint innovation process. The aim was to identify how the industry can better use real data to assess energy consumption in new buildings—without changing the existing energy labeling scheme.

Now the results are ready: a broadly composed expert panel has put forward a number of recommendations that together set the direction for a new national approach to data-driven energy benchmarking of buildings.

Broad agreement: Denmark needs a supplementary, data-driven benchmarking model

The expert group concludes that Denmark needs a voluntary benchmarking model based on actual heat consumption, utilization of district heating, and the technical operation of buildings. The model should function in parallel with the energy label and provide building owners and utilities with a more accurate picture of real building performance.

“As a utility company, we can clearly see the challenge in our measurement data, but today we lack a common language for what ‘good performance’ actually means in new buildings. A voluntary benchmarking model based on real data will provide much greater transparency and make it easier for building owners, consultants, and utilities to work in the same direction,” says Kristian Honoré, energy planner at HOFOR.

Recommendations from the sprint point toward a new national direction

The expert panel highlights three key areas that can form the foundation for future efforts. First and foremost, it recommends developing a voluntary, data-driven benchmarking model that operates alongside the energy label. The model should be based on actual heat consumption and show how buildings truly utilize district heating—thereby providing a more accurate picture of energy performance than theoretical calculations alone.

In addition, the panel sees an urgent need to strengthen data infrastructure across district heating companies and building types. Together with a transition to evidence- and data-based energy labels, this will provide significantly better conditions for successfully implementing the new EU directive (EPBD 2024/1275), which requires member states to renovate the most energy-consuming buildings.

“With the current theoretical energy labels (BE18/BE26), which Denmark has chosen to maintain, we unfortunately risk renovating good buildings while poor-performing buildings avoid renovation. The EU directive opens up for data- and evidence-based methods, and with frequent meter data available at Center Denmark, these methods can easily be established and automated—for the benefit of building owners, who will receive fair energy labeling, and for the green transition, which will gain maximum value from the billions that must be invested in renovation under the EU directive,” says Henrik Madsen, member of the expert panel and professor at DTU.

To meet these needs, this will require improved access to metering data, integration of more types of meters, and expansions of the Danish Building and Dwelling Register (BBR), so that operational conditions and technical installations are documented in much greater detail than today.

Finally, the panel recommends bringing the work to life through a large-scale pilot program. It proposes testing the data-driven benchmarking model in more than 100 multi-storey residential buildings constructed after 2015, allowing the industry to validate the method in practice and document its value across major urban areas.

A shared data foundation across district heating companies will strengthen further efforts

During the process, district heating companies, building owners, consultants, and researchers agreed that a shared, representative data foundation will be crucial for developing a new benchmarking model. Several district heating companies indicated that they could potentially provide data from 20–50 newer multi-storey residential buildings for a future pilot program.

Naturally, this will take place in close dialogue and collaboration with customers, who must also grant permission for their data to be used and shared.

Although the data has not yet been collected, these commitments demonstrate a strong willingness across the sector to jointly address the challenge and establish a foundation for more precise analyses across urban areas.

“This is the first time we have brought together so many stakeholders to analyze the performance gap in new buildings based on actual operational data. This means we now have such a strong foundation for the next steps that the proposed initiatives could set the framework for how Denmark benchmarks building energy performance in the future—on a data-driven and transparent basis,” says Michael Sørensen, Head of Innovation at Center Denmark.

Facts

The expert panel’s overall recommendations:

1. Establishment of a voluntary, data-driven benchmarking model based on real measurements rather than theoretical calculations, operating alongside the energy label
2. Expansion of data infrastructure, including improved access to district heating data, integration of more meters, and extensions to the BBR
3. A national knowledge and methodology platform with shared calculation methods, weather correction, and open documentation across stakeholders
4. An open national portal displaying anonymized benchmarks and providing an overview of performance across buildings
5. Pilot program: proposal to conduct practical demonstration projects in 100+ multi-storey residential buildings constructed after 2015
6. Gradual scaling: starting with new buildings and then expanding the model to the entire Danish building stock

Facts about the innovation sprint

• The sprint was carried out by Digital Energy Hub in collaboration with HOFOR
• The expert panel included representatives from district heating companies, building owners, consulting firms, DTU Compute, technology providers, and knowledge institutions
• The focus was on multi-storey residential buildings constructed after 2015

Facts about Digital Energy Hub

Digital Energy Hub is an innovation hub funded by the Danish Industry Foundation from 2025–2028 with DKK 19.7 million. The project is facilitated by Center Denmark, DigitalLead, and Energy Cluster Denmark.

Five to ten companies will have the opportunity to participate
Green Energy Academy is a collaborative project led by Energy Cluster Denmark, in close cooperation with Danish and Indian partners, and funded by the Danish Energy Agency and the EMD Foundation. Drawing on technical expertise from Danish partners Aprendio and Energy & Climate Academy, as well as academic excellence from the renowned Indian technical university IIT Madras, the project aims to upskill the green energy workforce in India while enabling the entry of innovative Danish solutions into the Indian market.

The project will establish a Green Energy Academy delivering courses to Indian professionals and postgraduate students in the following subjects: Wind, District Energy, CCUS, PtX and Green Fuels, Energy Storage, Water, Energy Efficiency, and Bioenergy. The courses will be developed in collaboration with Danish experts and professors from IIT Madras.

We are looking for Danish companies that wish to showcase their products or services as case examples in one or more of the courses. These showcases will be displayed in connection with the relevant courses, meaning that all course participants will have access to them.