GIROA SOCIEDAD ANONIMA

Their core work

GIROA is a Spanish facility management and building services company based in San Sebastián, specializing in energy-efficient building operations, district heating and cooling systems, and smart city infrastructure. They bring practical engineering and operational expertise to EU research projects, focusing on deploying and integrating energy management technologies in real buildings and urban environments. Their work spans building management systems (BMS), thermal retrofit solutions, district cooling networks, and more recently, energy-optimized data centre cooling.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

In their early H2020 period (2015–2018), GIROA focused squarely on building-level energy performance — intelligent building controls, BMS integration, facility management, and monitoring energy savings in real buildings and districts. From 2020 onward, their work shifted toward digitalization and data-driven energy management, including energy data platforms (PLATOON), data governance, and AI-augmented cooling for data centres (ECO-Qube). This evolution shows a company moving from physical building services into the digital and data layers of energy management.

GIROA is pivoting from traditional building energy services toward data-driven energy optimization, making them a strong partner for projects that bridge physical infrastructure with digital energy management.

How they like to work

GIROA operates exclusively as a project participant — they have never coordinated an H2020 project, preferring to contribute domain expertise within larger consortia. With 158 unique partners across 23 countries in just 7 projects, they work in large, diverse consortia (typical for smart city and energy demonstration projects). This suggests they are comfortable integrating their work into complex multi-partner setups and bring practical implementation capacity rather than research leadership.

GIROA has built a broad European network of 158 unique partners across 23 countries through 7 projects, largely driven by participation in large smart city demonstration consortia like REPLICATE and SmartEnCity. Their network is geographically diverse with no apparent concentration beyond their home base in Spain.

What sets them apart

GIROA brings something many energy research consortia lack: the perspective of a professional facility management company that actually operates buildings and energy systems day-to-day. Their value lies in bridging the gap between research prototypes and real-world building operations, ensuring that energy innovations work in practice, not just in simulation. For consortium builders, they offer a credible deployment and validation partner with hands-on experience across building, district, and increasingly data centre energy systems.

Highlights from their portfolio

• REPLICATE
  Largest single project funding (EUR 1.6M) — a flagship smart city replication project covering electric mobility and ICT platforms across European cities.
• SmartEnCity
  Second-largest funding (EUR 1.4M) and a long-running (2016–2022) smart zero-CO2 city demonstration, indicating deep involvement in urban energy transformation.
• ECO-Qube
  Marks a strategic pivot into data centre cooling and AI-augmented energy optimization — a growing market segment distinct from their traditional building focus.