Daikin has commenced construction on a new EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) Development Centre building in Ghent, Belgium.
This $A210.86 million (€ 140 million) investment will bring together all heat pump heating and refrigeration R&D activity in one central knowledge hub.
At the same time, the company announced additional investments for its heat pump production capacity, with another production line in Ostend, Belgium.
Combined with the production line that has been inaugurated in April, the company invested $A34.63 million (€ 23 million) in its Ostend plant.
With its new building, Daikin’s EMEA Development Centre (EDC) will cement its position as the leader in innovation in heat pump and refrigeration technology for the global group.
The new site of EDC Ghent will be located at the Technology Park in Zwijnaarde and will consist of 14 office floors and a technical building.
Daikin aims to create a unique innovative ecosystem, in close cooperation with the University of Ghent.
Part of the building will be reserved for innovative start-ups and spin-offs. The building will be completed by April 2024 and house 400 engineers. For this, Daikin Europe is actively searching new recruits.
Crucial in this R&D centre will be the technical building, which will house no less than 22 test chambers.
These test chambers are essential in Daikin’s product development to simulate operating effectiveness and efficiency under extreme climate conditions.
The centrepiece will be the double EMC test chamber, in which devices are tested for electromagnetic interference.
Daikin Europe will be one of the very few companies in the industry in Europe to operate this scale of testing capacity in-house.
Daikin Europe president, Toshitaka Tsubouchi, said EDC Ghent will become a real pressure cooker for technological development and innovation for the next century in the existence of Daikin.
“The demand for heat pumps is rapidly increasing in Europe. This is driven by the many initiatives of Belgian and European authorities to promote carbon neutral heating technology,” he said.
“To meet increasing demand, Daikin Europe today also announced a new investment in its production capacity in Ostend.”
With this new production line, Daikin will more than double its Belgian production capacity for heat pumps by the summer of 2023. The same plant already announced it had doubled its capacity with the inauguration of another new heat pump production line in April.