Markus Breig, KIT

Climate-friendly housing – but how to cope with the costs? A survey of 3,000 households conducted in Germany in late 2025 reveals that nearly three fourths of the residents are expecting significantly higher energy costs and 65 percent believe that they have little or no financial leeway for energy upgrades. The findings from the EU project PREFIGURE, coordinated by the KIT, show how concerns about energy costs are related to financial pressure and options for action. According to the researchers, socially tiered funding models and greater tenant participation would be helpful.

Dirk Witthaut / FZ Juelich

Why do our grids show a brief spike in electricity demand every minute? A new Nature Energy study led by ESD researchers reveals the cause of a long-observed 60-second disturbance in power grids worldwide. The researchers traced the effect to unintended synchronization of digitally controlled energy devices and demonstrate how a simple software adjustment could improve grid stability.

The EERA Joint Programme Energy Storage invites PhD students and stakeholders to join a PhD Day on "Prospective Sustainability Assessment of Energy Storage Technologies – Methods and Case Studies". The event offers a platform to present and discuss research on life cycle assessment, techno-economic analysis, system integration, hybrid storage solutions, optimization approaches, and innovative energy storage business models.

With more than 63,000 downloads, the open-access book "Modelling the Energy Transition – Cultures, Visions, Narratives" is the most downloaded Palgrave Macmillan / Springer Nature Open Access title published this year. The multidisciplinary volume explores how energy models shape transition pathways and how assumptions, narratives, and societal perspectives influence visions of future energy systems.

FZ Jülich

How can Europe achieve climate neutrality while strengthening resilience and competitiveness? A new study by ESD researchers at Jülich Systems Analysis explores pathways for Europe’s energy transition and was presented by Prof. Jochen Linßen at the European symposium “Squaring the Circle: The Future of the EU Energy System – Net-Zero, Resilient & Competitive?” in Brussels. The event brought together representatives from European institutions, research organizations, and industry to discuss key challenges and opportunities for Europe’s energy future.

Marvin Dorn, KIT

KIT is expanding the Energy Lab – Europe’s leading research infrastructure for renewable energy systems – with a sodium-ion battery storage system. Researchers will investigate this emerging energy storage technology under realistic operating conditions, further strengthening KIT’s research into safe, sustainable, and high-performance storage technologies for tomorrow’s energy supply.