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As temperatures rise, the need for cooling is growing worldwide. Conventional cooling systems consume large amounts of electricity and use refrigerants with a high global warming potential. Caloric cooling could offer a sustainable alternative by using solid-state materials instead of conventional refrigerants. Researchers at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), together with international partners, have analyzed the state of development of such systems.

Their review, published in Nature Energy, shows the progress achieved so far and the challenges that still stand in the way of practical deployment.

According to the German Meteorological Service, June 2026 ended with a historic heat wave. As such extreme events become more frequent worldwide, energy demand for space cooling is expected to more than double by 2050. The rapid development of artificial intelligence is also increasing cooling demand, as more powerful data centers generate more waste heat and must reliably protect their servers against overheating.

Cooling is becoming increasingly important not only in buildings and data centers but also in electronics, medicine and logistics. So far, this demand has mainly been met by vapor-compression systems. Although mature, this technology consumes large amounts of electricity and can cause noise through its compressors.

Research by Dr. Jingyuan Xu shows that there are other ways to cool. The early-career researcher heads the Zero-Emission and Environmentally Friendly Heating and Cooling Technologies research group at KIT's Institute of Microstructure Technology (IMT).

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