Energy grids and networks articles from across Nature Portfolio

The importance of renewable integration into grids came to the forefront in 2025. New challenges in stability, storage, artificial intelligence demand and policy changes defined a year that tested whether power systems can become reliable, flexible and equitable in a net-zero world.

In this work, authors present a modular design for solid oxide fuel cell systems, aiming to enhance scalability and efficiency. It achieves 66.3% electrical efficiency, reduces water use by 60%, and fresh air demand by 22%, offering a cost-effective solution for large-scale power generation.

Phase-shift engineering of triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) is a strategy for modulating the phase shifts of electrical output from multiple TENG units to achieve continuous constant voltage/current output. This Review summarizes the principles of phase shift engineered TENGs, and how it might further boost energy utilization efficiency and practicality.

Yue Xiang and colleagues propose an adaptive hierarchical learning framework to address implicit uncertainties in distributed energy resource planning when third-party operators lack full grid visibility. Their method co-optimizes investment and operational decisions data-drivenly, reducing costs while maintaining voltage stability without relying on predefined scenarios or model simplifications.

Multi-day, long-duration energy storage (LDES) is essential for decarbonizing the power grid, yet grid-scale deployment of LDES faces steep cost, scale and risk barriers. Behind-the-meter backup power applications for large commercial and medical facilities offer an early market; targeting this could overcome all three barriers and accelerate the adoption of LDES.

This Focus issue explores how intelligent power systems and sustainable energy technologies are driving the transition toward net-zero emissions.

The importance of renewable integration into grids came to the forefront in 2025. New challenges in stability, storage, artificial intelligence demand and policy changes defined a year that tested whether power systems can become reliable, flexible and equitable in a net-zero world.

A study in Nature Energy reports a software-based approach that allows AI data centres to operate as flexible, grid-aware loads, reducing power demand during peak periods without compromising performance.

An article in Nature Cities assesses the deployable potential of rooftop solar photovoltaics across Chinese cities, finding that only 42% of the national technical potential is realistically deployable.

Efficient, safe and low-cost energy storage technologies are essential as renewable energy increasingly powers the grid.