12th Long Night of Science: Open doors at HI ERN for night owls

29 October 2025

Practical demonstrations, exclusive laboratory tours, and exciting questions about hydrogen and photovoltaic research at HI ERN: The Long Night of Science once again offered numerous curious visitors exciting insights into science.

At the former factory site "Auf AEG" in Nuremberg, the institute's newest location, numerous visitors took the opportunity to get to know a research facility that develops cutting-edge technology from laboratory scale to real-world application: From electrochemical electrode development and manufacturing to hydrogen and CO2 systems, scientists provided exciting insights into climate research in the field of hydrogen storage and CO2 electrolysis during the laboratory tours.

The accompanying exhibits and personal discussions with researchers answered many questions: How do fuel cells work? How can automation and high-throughput methods accelerate research, and how can computer simulations optimize material properties and manufacturing processes? And how can the materials used in solar modules be efficiently analyzed and recycled?

In addition, visitors were able to use the first H2Season prototype to experience what a practical and economical solution for seasonal energy storage might look like in the future.

In the solar factory of the future, guests were given an insight into how modern printing techniques are used to conjure up solar modules directly onto glass or wafer-thin PET films.

The HI ERN laboratories in Erlangen were also crowded: The team demonstrated during the lab tours what automated materials research looks like in the laboratories at the "Immerwahrstraße" site, where robots manufacture solar cells from organic semiconductors and then characterize them fully automatically. The data generated in the process is evaluated by AI and used to perform optimizations in high-dimensional parameter spaces with as few experiments as possible.

_{Copyright (Photos on this page): HI ERN/Jessica Pölloth}