Electrifying Ideas Award 2026 Cooling Technology for Climate-Friendly AI Infrastructure

Related Vendors

FAULHABER Drive Systems

Taiwan Machine Tool & Accessory Builders' Association (TMBA)

SIMTOS (Seoul International Machine Tool Show)

Rittal, GSI, and etalytics have won the Electrifying Ideas Award from ZVEI for their groundbreaking concept of European AI data centers. Their solution handles extreme power densities through direct liquid cooling and AI-supported energy optimization.

The ZVEI has announced the winner of the Electrifying Ideas Award 2026. The award honors innovations and solutions from the German electrical and digital industry that use energy efficiently, conserve resources, and have both economic and societal impact.

Key Technology for Energy-Efficient Data Centers

Among more than 50 submissions, Rittal's Electrifying Idea prevailed: With Direct Liquid Cooling, Rittal has developed a key technology for the energy-efficient operation of AI-capable data centers. Together with the GSI Helmholtz Center and the start-up Etalytics, a practical liquid cooling system with over 1 MW cooling capacity was realized. The direct chip cooling overcomes the physical limitations of conventional air cooling and enables the scalable use of high-performance GPUs. AI-based control algorithms and digital twins optimize energy consumption in real time and significantly reduce the CO2 footprint. The project delivers a proven series concept and a transferable best practice for climate-friendly AI infrastructure 'Made in Europe'.

“This idea solves a real problem of the future: AI requires enormous computing power, and this is directly linked to energy demand and cooling. This is not just about better cooling but about a practical lever for transforming data centers. This enormous potential for impact convinced us,” said the chairman of the award jury, Dr. Gunther Kegel.

AI Applications Generate Large Amounts of Data

The background: Artificial intelligence promises rapid advancements for research, industry, and everyday life – with high relevance for Germany as an economic hub. Its growth is also determined in the engine room of digitization: in data centers, where new high-performance processors (GPUs) process enormous amounts of data for AI applications. Here, new architectures for cooling and power are needed, as the established concepts with air cooling have long reached their physical limits.

This award-winning project from Germany, enhanced by international expertise, addresses exactly this challenge: Rittal has developed a direct liquid cooling system that uses water to absorb heat directly at the chips. This makes computing power of over one million watts possible in a confined space—modular, easy to maintain, and designed for large-scale 24/7 operations. Together with GSI, the system was put into operation at the Green IT Cube in Darmstadt and further developed to series production. The green GSI data center provides the ideal environment: modern data center architecture with maximum energy efficiency, high-performance computing for the FAIR particle accelerator, and the Digital Open Lab as a development platform. Etalytics complements the concept with AI-supported energy optimization based on digital twins and AI-based control algorithms, further reducing the CO2 footprint.

The result: A niche technology for specialized applications has become a proven series concept for rapid scaling—suitable as a pace-setter for the expansion of sovereign AI infrastructure with expertise and high value creation depth in Europe.

Use AI Technologies to Remain Competitive

"We are very grateful for the jury's decision to award us this prize. It draws attention to an urgent issue at the right time. The expansion of AI-capable infrastructure in Europe must significantly accelerate," says Prof. Dr. Friedhelm Loh, owner and CEO of the Friedhelm Loh Group.

"The award shows how important the cooperation between research and industry is. Technology transfer paves the way for findings from cutting-edge research to concrete applications," says Prof. Dr. Thomas Nilsson, Scientific Managing Director of GSI and Fair.

Thomas Weber, Co-Founder & CSO of Etalytics, adds: "If we want to remain competitive in Germany in the future, we must implement the use of new AI technologies in the best possible way. This has been achieved in the collaboration between Rittal, GSI, and Etalytics through the combination of engineering expertise and AI technologies: The context of the cooling system was specifically transferred into the AI application and made usable there."

Data Centers

Flow Control Valves for Demanding Liquid Cooling Applications