KIT Researcher Receives PI Innovation Award for Key Technology Supporting the Energy Transition

(left to right): Award recipient Dr. Fabian Sommer together with Dr. Steffen Schreiber, Director Global Innovation and Scouting at PI, and Dr.-Ing. Markus Simon, Strategic Innovation Management at PI, at the award ceremony on July 31, 2026, held as part of the Faculty Day of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology at KIT.

How can electricity from renewable sources be transferred and used more efficiently in the future between solar installations, battery storage systems, data centers, and fast-charging infrastructure? This was the question addressed by a dissertation completed at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), which has now been honored with the PI Innovation Award. The award, presented annually by Karlsruhe-based technology company Physik Instrumente (PI), carries a prize of €2,500 and recognizes scientific work with particular potential for innovation and technology transfer.

The expansion of renewable energy, battery storage, AI data centers, and electromobility is fundamentally changing the demands placed on our energy system. Increasingly, large amounts of energy need to be exchanged between different systems — as quickly, safely, and with as little energy loss as possible. This is precisely where the award-winning research comes in.

At the heart of the dissertation is a novel high-performance DC/DC converter (Dual Active Bridge) that enables particularly efficient energy exchange between DC systems. Dr. Fabian Sommer developed new models and control methods that allow electrical energy to be transferred with lower losses while increasing the performance of such systems.

The methods developed were experimentally validated on a 500-kilowatt demonstrator, showcasing the technology's potential for future DC grids, battery storage systems, and fast-charging infrastructure.

"With the PI Innovation Award, we want to recognize research that combines scientific excellence with tangible benefit. This dissertation impressively demonstrates how innovative basic research can pave the way for more powerful and efficient energy systems. These findings make an important contribution to the energy supply of the future," said Dr. Michael Albiez, CEO of PI.

In concrete terms, the work can help make battery storage systems, fast-charging stations, and other high-performance energy systems more efficient, more powerful, and more economical to operate — thereby supporting the continued expansion of renewable energy.

"The industry collaborations with manufacturers of power semiconductors and transformers that emerged during the course of this doctoral research demonstrate that the results are being applied directly in industrial practice, while also forming the basis for further research into the advancement of DC/DC converters," added Prof. Marc Hiller, Head of Institute at KIT's Institute of Electrical Engineering (ETI).

Dr. Steffen Schreiber, Director Global Innovation and Scouting at PI and member of the PI Innovation Award selection committee, highlighted not only the practical applicability of the work but also its particularly innovative perspective on the underlying physical effects: "These effects frequently occur in reality but have so far mostly only been accounted for rather than deliberately harnessed. Dr. Fabian Sommer's dissertation shows how these effects can be specifically leveraged to further improve efficiency and dynamic performance."

About Physik Instrumente (PI)

PI with headquarters in Karlsruhe, Germany, is the market and technology leader for high-precision positioning technology and piezo applications in the market segments of Industrial Automation, Photonics, Semiconductor, and Microscopy & Life Sciences. In close cooperation with customers from all over the world, PI's more than 1,900 specialists have been continuously pushing the boundaries of what is technically feasible for more than fifty years. Various drive technologies, internally developed sensor technology, electronics, and control technology provide the basis for this. PI’s portfolio ranges from components to subsystems to tailor-made complete solutions. More than 560 granted and pending patents underline the company’s claim to leadership in the fields of precision positioning and piezo technology. PI operates on a global scale, with nine production sites in Europe, North America, and Asia, as well as sixteen sales and service subsidiaries. PI has been part of the Hoerbiger Group since April 2026.

Further Information at: www.physikinstrumente.com or www.hoerbiger.com.