VAILLANT GMBH

Their core work

Vaillant is a major German manufacturer of heating, ventilation, and hot water systems, headquartered in Remscheid. Within H2020, they contributed industrial expertise in fuel cell micro-combined heat and power (mCHP) systems, compact thermal energy storage, and smart home energy interoperability. Their role centers on bringing laboratory-scale heating technologies closer to market-ready products, particularly fuel cell-based residential heating units and digitally connected building energy systems.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

Vaillant's early H2020 involvement (2015-2016) focused on hardware-level energy technologies: compact thermal storage (CREATE) and fuel cell stack manufacturing (HEATSTACK). Their later projects shifted toward commercialization, large-scale deployment of fuel cell mCHP (PACE), and digital integration of heating systems into smart grids (InterConnect, 2019). The trajectory shows a clear move from component-level R&D toward system integration, digitalization, and market rollout.

Vaillant is moving from pure heating hardware toward digitally connected, grid-interactive building energy systems — expect future interest in demand response, energy flexibility, and IoT-enabled heating.

How they like to work

Vaillant participates exclusively as a partner, never as coordinator, consistent with a large industrial company contributing product expertise and market access rather than managing research consortia. Their 116 unique partners across 16 countries indicate involvement in large-scale Innovation Actions and demonstration projects. This makes them an attractive partner for consortia needing a major heating manufacturer to validate, test, or commercialize energy technologies at scale.

Vaillant has collaborated with 116 unique partners across 16 countries, reflecting participation in large European demonstration and innovation consortia. Their network spans the heating, fuel cell, and smart energy sectors across Western and Central Europe.

What sets them apart

Vaillant is one of Europe's largest heating system manufacturers, giving any consortium immediate access to industrial-scale production, established distribution channels, and a massive installed base of residential heating systems. Unlike research institutes or SMEs, they can take a validated technology from pilot to millions of European homes. For any project needing a credible path from prototype to market in residential heating, Vaillant is a rare and high-value partner.

Highlights from their portfolio

• PACE
  Major European initiative to commercialize fuel cell micro-CHP at scale, targeting real market deployment rather than just research — directly aligned with Vaillant's core heating business.
• InterConnect
  Vaillant's most recent and highest-funded project (EUR 107,771), marking their strategic pivot toward smart grid-connected heating and digital building ecosystems.
• HEATSTACK
  Focused specifically on making fuel cell stacks and heat exchangers production-ready — a critical manufacturing challenge for the fuel cell heating industry.