Press release Climate-neutral poultry experimental housing at ILVO uses flexible energy systems

Cornerstone laid by Minister Jo Brouns on 9 May 2025

ILVO has started construction of a new Poultry Innovation Center, which will be thoroughly energy-flexible and climate-neutral. This is a first, and a major challenge, because poultry housing in particular places very high demands on variable ventilation and variable heating. This translates into peaks and troughs in energy consumption.

On Friday, May 9, 2025, Flemish Minister of Environment and Agriculture JO BROUNS laid the official cornerstone for the building. "Tearing down six old experimental stables, and replacing them with one bold, high-tech, multifunctional building that can answer very diverse research goals, is a good deal. We as a Flemish region continue to invest in sustainable livestock research."

Challenge 1: architectural demands of the growing chicken

The desired temperature and ventilation demand in a poultry house, including a poultry research experimental facility, is far from constant. Day-old chicks require a warm environment (32°C with floor heat between 28-30°C and relative humidity between 40% and 65%). (Almost) slaughter-aged chickens give off a lot of heat and thus require cooling to ideally 18°C, achieved through intense ventilation. In other words, poultry farming demands modular climate control. To make such a system climate-neutral, the focus must be on effective control of ingeniously integrated energy technologies. Climate change has increased the challenge for heating, cooling and ventilation in recent years in the livestock industry. Days with extreme conditions in terms of heat, cold or humidity are occurring more and more frequently.

Challenge 2: net congestion may threaten reliability of production conditions

Energy transition (switching from gas or oil to electricity) and recent technologies such as data centers are increasing pressure on the power grid. Companies and project developers are requesting increases in their existing connections or additional connections. If all power consumers and businesses effectively use their allocated capacity at the same time, then local grid congestion or grid saturation can occur. Electricity prices in the day-ahead market already take this into account: electricity prices are typically much higher in the morning between 7:00 a.m. and 9:00 a.m., and in the evening between 5:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m., than in the afternoon - this is can even double on sunny days. Energy flexibility (on the demand side) means that the (large) consumers can match their desired consumption via modulation and their own renewable energy sources and buffers to available supply (solar) and to the transformer capacity of, for example, the entire ILVO site.

Innovations to achieve energy flexibility and climate neutrality

In order to deliver the envisioned energy flexibility and total climate neutrality, the innovation in ILVO's new Poultry Innovation Center is mainly in the combinability of sustainable techniques.

For the concept ILVO could count on guidance and support (also financial) from the 'Program Innovative Public Procurement' (PIO) at VLAIO. PIO helps the Flemish government and Flemish public sector to develop, test and validate - through public procurement - innovative solutions for which there are no ready-made solutions on the market yet.

Mark Andries, Administrator-General of VLAIO: "This project is a perfect illustration of how the pursuit of sustainability and climate neutrality goes hand in hand with innovation and leads to future-proof solutions. I am pleased that we were able to contribute to this state-of-the-art poultry research barn and hope that - once realized - it will serve as an example for the entire industry."

Joris Relaes, Administrator-General of ILVO: "During the planning phase of this pilot building, we also worked hard on the economics of the switched technologies. The system will continuously evaluate the right (most economical, most rational) priorities within the available range of sustainable heating, cooling and ventilation technologies. This pragmatism is definitely going to interest the industry, as well as the government."

There are three different heat sources:

• Geothermal: er worden diepteboringen uitgevoerd die warmte via een medium aan een vrij constante temperatuur naar boven halen uit de ondergrond
• Thermal energy: fotovoltaïsche-thermische panelen (PVT of zgn. hybride zonnepanelen) op het dak
• Residual heat from the ventilation air recuperated at the air scrubber.

To heat the poultry house, there are three mechanisms according to the need. Floor heating (a highly energy-efficient fundamental heat source) as well as twin pipes on the side walls are available. The twin pipes are made of metal, filled with hot water, and have a flat metal profile on two sides. The third source is the conditioned air from the ventilation air from outside, with is either cooled or heated via heating and cooling elements.

Of course, excellent insulation and airtightness are essential to making the building more inert (less responsive to heat or cold from outside). Both floor and walls and roof and floor are fitted with a thick "jacket".

Electricity is sourced as follows:

• Own production: the PVT panels deliver more than 250 kWp.
• Thermal storage of energy in water buffers. A 50m³ tank is used to flatten or defer peaks of energy production to the most favorable times.
• Green (purchased) power through the Flemish Energy Company VEB: when supplemental electricity is needed, (green) power is sourced from the grid.

"On an annual basis, ILVO is aiming to power this building with as much self-produced energy as possible. We are not completely energy-autonomous, however; that would be too expensive and is not necessary to achieve climate neutrality. It is especially important that we have a flexible approach during electricity peaks so we do not place an additional burden on the electricity grid. NO fossil fuel is used to power this building."

A megabrain manages all systems

The energy management system controls the desired energy with all techniques integrated into a network. This manager automatically chooses the best (combination of) energy and heat sources.

Gerlinde De Vogeleer, energiecoördinator ILVO: "The decision relies on weather and building model forecasts, availability of self-generated electricity, (low) grid prices or avoidance of grid peaks. We emphasize that ILVO contributes significantly to the energy transition in Flanders with this flexible steering.

It is precisely in this control that there are many learning opportunities for poultry farming: how can the heat and ventilation needs of chickens during all their life phases be met with heat emission (as much as possible) at low temperature and with an accurately tuned set of priorities?

For a diversity of ambitious poultry research projects

The new poultry trial accommodation at Burgemeester Van Gansberghelaan 92 in Merelbeke-Melle will be 70 meters long and 41 meters wide, and is licensed for up to 14,000 broilers. Six old energy-guzzling, non-ammonia-emitting houses were first demolished.

The building has nine compartments in which light and climate can be precisely and separately controlled. Each compartment can house broilers in subdivided pens ("rumen"), with modular or removable walls. In scientific trials, this is necessary to draw reliable conclusions via sufficient replication.

Evelyne Delezie, Poultry research coordinator ILVO: "This building opens perspectives to further develop both our fundamental and application-oriented specialized knowledge, and to share it with policy, stakeholders and society."
The architectural design is thus mainly aimed at modularity, for very different experimental designs and many different research questions. These include:

• Various feeding, water, management strategies and their impact on animal behavior, animal health, emissions, excretions and meat quality. ILVO receives many questions about this from the sector. Optimal feed composition, feed requirements, valorization of alternative additives or raw materials (e.g. algae, microbial protein or circular waste streams) are addressed in this independent knowledge center.
• Precision livestock farming: digital and robotic systems testing are certainly possible.
• Environmental and climate research: Emissions will also be able to be measured end-of-pipe from now on. Correlating the sensors and automatic data collection from the central control to environmental and climate effects and to certain practices is among the possibilities.
• Light and air, inside and out: Four compartments feature extra daylight and a winter garden, with access to a free range. Research into alternative housing concepts is thus an option.
• Training for both stakeholders and educational institutions.

Conclusion: tons of innovation under one roof

The Poultry Innovation Center is a proof of concept where both animal and environment-related research can be conducted using the latest techniques in collaboration with various research and/or private partners. With this new building ILVO shows its permanent committment to supporting a thriving, Flemish poultry sector.

Contractors and engineers