Energy

Physics has a price too

The EIB is investing €19 million in Reactive Technologies, which measures grid inertia, system strength and voltage stability in real time. With the energy transition, physical properties are becoming tradable services. Since 2026, Germany has been procuring instantaneous reserve capacity on a market-based basis.

Power, power, power instead of location, location, location

The AI boom is changing the real estate economy: where grid capacity becomes scarce, secure access to electricity increases in value – and capitalizes on the price of land.

Five asset classes, one data center

The AI boom is devouring immense capital for data centers and infrastructure, for example, which is reflected in very different segments of the portfolio. For institutional investors, the question arises as to whether this allocation allows sufficient conclusions to be drawn about the actual risks.

The surprise of the energy transition could be that volatility, of all things, is becoming one of the most valuable raw materials in the system.

Negative electricity prices are piling up: in 2025, Germany counted 573 hours below zero, the average day-ahead spread was €130/MWh. Battery storage monetises volatility; BNEF expects +1/3 installations in 2026, costs since 2018 -75%. PV redispatch Q2/2025: 605→1,168 GWh.

When volatility becomes a business model in infrastructure investments – the example of battery storage

Battery storage is currently the most visible proxy for the role of infrastructure shifting for investors. Falling costs, rising electricity demand and volatile energy markets are reinforcing this development.

Side letters as a place of institutional risk responsibility

Fund contracts are becoming more and more complex. At the same time, central questions of risk and responsibility are shifting: side letters have become the place where institutional investors try to anchor responsibility where it can no longer be clearly regulated in the contract.

Looking back on 2025: The market is not nervous – it is in the process of restructuring!

Behind the mood in the institutional fund business, described as market uncertainty, there is actually something else: the tidying up of temporary solutions.

SFDR 2.0: Europe is slowly getting the hang of it!

Europe is finally daring to ask what a sustainable product actually is. The SFDR reform is nothing less than an attempt to bring order to a decade of regulatory chaos.

Solvency II and BESS investments: No infrastructure quota, but an infrastructure template – if you understand it, you can use it

While the German AnlV diverts capital flows, Solvency II tries to accompany them in a risk-appropriate manner. Reduced capital requirements are intended to open up capital in particular for infrastructure – keyword: qualified infrastructure.

Energy transition in open-ended real estate funds – classification of the innovations in the Economic Development Act (StoFöG)

Open-ended real estate funds have been encountering legal grey areas in the integration of renewable energies for years. With the new Location Promotion Act (StoFöG), the legislator wants to eliminate these uncertainties.

Tenant electricity from photovoltaics: Answers to readers' questions

After the publication of the column "Tenant electricity from photovoltaics: possibilities and models from the point of view of the property owner", the author received a lot of feedback – especially from institutional investors.

Tenant electricity from photovoltaics: possibilities and models from the point of view of the property owner