CSC's statement on the EC's strategy for Smart Sector Integration

CSC's statement on the EC's strategy for Smart Sector Integration

CSC emphasises the role of research and technology in achieving better sector integration. New innovations are crucial for developing the energy sector. We need research and innovations to develop more efficient and cleaner ways to produce energy, to create innovations that optimise the energy usage, and to find solution to better energy storage and conversion.

To boost innovations and technological advancement, the EU needs to invest in research and development activities. The next framework programme for research, Horizon Europe, must have a sufficient budget in order to be truly beneficial also for the energy sector. The same applies to the Digital Europe programme, as good digital and research infrastructures are necessary for developing new, climate friendly technology.

IT sector itself is very energy intensive. CSC supports the Commission’s target of making data centers carbon neutral by 2030 and encourages the Commission to take actions to achieve that target. Data centers, as well as the energy-intensive operations that are run in them, such as high-performance computing, must be located in places where it is possible to operate the data centers in an ecologically sustainable way. This means that there must be sufficiently carbon free energy available, and that the waste heat can be utilised for example in district heating network. A good example of how it is possible to run a data center in a carbon neutral manner can be found in CSC’s data center in Kajaani, which hosts one of the EuroHPC pre-exascale supercomputers, LUMI, from the beginning of the next year. The waste heat generated by LUMI will heat up 5000 homes in the area.

Read the entire statement here.