With the Research and Innovation Center of Energy Technology, a new research building for around 60 researchers was created at Hochschule Offenburg. It was planned with sustainability aspects in mind for good workplace quality, with an innovative office concept and a large flexible lab center. With this integral planning, a grid-supportive, zero-energy building was realized which brings together Hochschule Offenburg’s diverse research activities in resource and energy efficiency.

RIZ Energie is part of the Southern Upper Rhine region’s development concept, prepared under the leadership of the Klimapartner Oberrhein association through the competition "RegioWIN – Regional Competitiveness through Innovation and Sustainability." RegioWIN itself is a key program element of the ERDF (European Regional Development Fund) strategy of the State of Baden-Württemberg for the 2014-2020 funding period and was launched in 2013 by the State Ministries of Science, Research and Arts, and Rural Areas and Consumer Protection.

In August 2012, an initial project idea for the "Sustainable Energy Valley" was developed, elaborated into a regional-strategy concept in 2013, and submitted in August 2014. In March 2015, after the project had been awarded a prize, Hochschule Offenburg registered it as a Flagship Project for the Southern Upper Rhine Energy Transition Region with the Freiburg Office of Vermögen und Bau Baden-Württemberg. After a kick-off planning meeting in September 2015, the construction documents were submitted in January 2016 for the 2017/18 budget year. Following approval in October 2017, construction began in May 2018 with the groundbreaking ceremony. The building was ceremoniously handed over to Hochschule Offenburg on August 25, 2020.

The construction costs amounted to 8.5 million euros, with the real estate provided by the City of Offenburg. Funds amounting to 1.5 million euros were used for the initial furnishings. 50 percent of the costs were covered by the EU within the framework of the European Regional Development Fund, 30 percent by the Stifterkreis (donors' foundation) and the University, and 20 percent by the State of Baden-Württemberg.

At RIZ Energie, the University, industrial and commercial businesses work together to develop resource-efficient products and systems – from renewable energy generation, storage and distribution, to energy use for the home, workplace and transportation. The building's structural design and technical equipment itself send out a clear signal for the energy turnaround and will continue to drive for change through the interaction of research, teaching and application. Combining the cross-cutting issues of energy/environment and digitization, RIZ Energie offers a research platform for an increasingly systemic approach in the engineering sciences to research new, competitive solutions and put them into practice.