European project GREEN.DAT.AI invests in data sharing and more efficient artificial intelligence

EDP’s research and development center is leading the pilot for Energy Data Marketplaces, which will make AI greener and more collaborative in the energy sector

EDP, through its Innovation Research and Development (R&D) Center, is leading one of the pilots of the European project GREEN.DAT.AI — a consortium of 17 organizations from various countries working to develop new energy-efficient data analysis solutions, applied to industry and powered by artificial intelligence (AI).

Supported by the European Commission through the Horizon Europe program, GREEN.DAT.AI aims to reduce the environmental impact of processing large volumes of data. The innovative solutions being tested have already attracted the Commission’s interest, positioning the European Union at the forefront of sustainable technological innovation.

As part of the project, EDP’s R&D Center is leading the Energy Data Marketplaces pilot, which aims to develop a digital space where competing companies can collaborate without sharing sensitive data, using machine learning models — an AI technique that enables decentralized algorithm training.

The pilot focuses on using “green” AI algorithms, designed to optimize energy consumption during operation. These algorithms are being applied to wind farms data marketplace, to improve the accuracy of energy production forecasts across different geographic locations.

Additionally, the project demonstrates two practical ways to make AI more sustainable: first, by using algorithms that require fewer computational resources and therefore less energy; and second, by ensuring that the energy used to power AI systems comes from renewable sources such as wind, solar, or hydro.

This initiative aims to:

• Improve energy production forecasts in different locations;
• Minimize penalties incurred due to bidding calculation errors;
• Increase the efficiency and stability of the power grid;
• Optimize energy sales by producers;
• Create a collaborative competition environment where stakeholders can monetize pooled data resources and improve bidding accuracy, without compromising valuable data.

In collaboration with partners INESC Tec, CNR, AEGIS, and Sphynx, among others, EDP’s R&D Center is currently in the pilot phase of GREEN.DAT.AI, testing AI-based solutions and algorithms that allow data to be monetized or exchanged for energy production forecasts — or even simply purchased to support decision-making in the renewable energy market.

The pilot also leverages advanced technologies such as data valorization, federated learning, geographic knowledge transfer, and data visualization to facilitate and enhance information sharing among different sector stakeholders.

Using real data collected from renewable energy plants, the project encourages producers and operators to share and exchange data securely, creating a reliable ecosystem of data-based services. Additionally, data sharing is being evaluated across the entire value chain to improve operations and maintenance (O&M), create new market models, and more accurately estimate data value, which could significantly impact the energy sector. A decentralized collaborative learning architecture is also being tested, focusing on its scalability and contribution to a more efficient and sustainable market.

With the pilot expected to conclude in 2025, EDP’s R&D Center aims to validate whether data sharing in the renewables sector is truly essential to improve production forecasts, support smart grid management, and integrate different renewable sources more effectively.

This innovative approach, based on cooperation between competitors, could become a key element in driving technological advances, refining business models, and optimizing energy systems — contributing to a greener, more digital, and sustainable energy transition on a global scale.

About the GREEN.DAT.AI Project

The European research project GREEN.DAT.AI aims to channel the potential of Artificial Intelligence toward the goals of the European Green Deal by developing new Large-Scale and Energy-Efficient Data Analysis Services, ready for use in AI-based industrial systems, while reducing the environmental impact of data management processes.

GREEN.DAT.AI seeks to demonstrate the efficiency of new large-scale data analysis services across four sectors (Smart Energy, Smart Agriculture/Food, Smart Mobility, and Smart Banking) and six different application scenarios, leveraging the use of European Data Spaces.

For more information: https://greendatai.eu