About the NCER-D2ET
CONTEXT
Luxembourg is at a turning point in its energy transition: a small but highly interconnected country where every choice—about electricity, heat, gas, or hydrogen—ripples through the whole system. Guided by the Pacte national Énergie Climat (PNEC), which sets ambitious targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions and expanding renewables by 2030, the country must balance sustainability with resilience, affordability, and fairness.
Achieving these goals requires more than technology: it calls for trusted data, advanced models, and active collaboration among policymakers, companies, researchers, and citizens. Together, they can create the knowledge base and decision-support needed to steer Luxembourg towards a sustainable, low-carbon, and resilient energy future.
OBJECTIVES
To address the complex challenge of Luxembourg’s energy transition, the NCER-D2ET, co-funded by the Luxembourg National Research Fund (FNR), is built on four key pillars, each tackling a critical aspect of the puzzle.
At the project’s core is a nationwide digital platform, co-designed with public and private partners.
Its purpose is to drive the transition through data, technology, and collaboration, while creating tangible socioeconomic value for Luxembourg.
This involves addressing major technical challenges: data collection and harmonisation, modelling complex energy systems, and developing predictive tools.
Stronger collaboration leads to stronger decisions.
That’s why stakeholders at every level — from institutions to citizens — are involved in co-developing technical solutions that meet real needs.
A research roadmap also guides multi-stakeholder decision-making, built on data, dialogue, and transparency.
The energy transition is not only technical — it is also social, economic, and environmental.
We build socio-economic models to anticipate the effects of market designs and regulations, while also assessing environmental impacts such as land use and circularity.
This ensures Luxembourg can define sustainable and future-proof pathways.
Our ambition goes beyond research: we aim to deliver lasting value.
Strategies are put in place to exploit, share, and valorise results, ensuring that policymakers, industry, and society all benefit from the project outcomes.
OUTCOMES
The NCER-D2ET unites researchers, industry, regulators, and citizens in co-creating a nationwide decision-support and digital twin platform.
This platform will:
- Allow researchers to design, test, and validate new energy-transition models and approaches.
- Enable engaged stakeholders to simulate energy solutions before enforcing investing decisions.
- Empower citizens’ role in shaping the transition by providing concrete guidance for sustainable choices and actions
- Provide policymakers with evidence-based insights to design better, more robust regulations.
The first demonstrators will tackle three pressing national priorities, in the form of scenarios:
- Heat transition – analyzing the trade-offs for the deployment of heat pumps versus district heating.
- Energy security – ensuring reliable supply in a multi-carrier system.
- Energy communities – exploring how citizens and local actors can co-create resilient, decentralized energy solutions.
By combining cutting-edge science with real-world needs, D2ET turns Luxembourg into a living laboratory for future-proof energy systems.
IMPACT
The NCER-D2ET will create a trusted national framework for data-driven decision-making, strengthening Luxembourg’s ability to plan and implement its energy transition. While final decisions remain with the relevant stakeholders, the project aims at delivering the data, models, and a platform to make them more transparent, inclusive, and future-oriented.
For industry, it means better investment planning and new opportunities to test services in virtual pilots. For citizens, it ensures their voices and choices shape the transition. For policymakers, it provides robust evidence for navigating complexity with confidence.
In the long run, the NCER-D2ET aims to become a reference model—showing how collaboration between science, society, and decision-makers can address complex challenges not only in energy but also in other critical domains.