The Fraunhofer Center for Sustainable Energy Systems CSE in Boston and the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE in Freiburg announce the release of the first report from their PV Durability Initiative (PVDI). PVDI’s robust testing protocol generates scores that enable the credible rating of PV modules based on their likelihood to perform reliably under different kinds of stress. The report provides solar PV financiers, developers, and other industry players with the first widely available quantitative dataset to assess long-term durability.

The Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE and the Italian company CGA Technologies S.p.A. have concluded a liscensing contract for the FracTherm^® technology, which was developed and patented by Fraunhofer ISE. The technology uses a procedure with which bionic channel structures are patterned after nature to create an efficient flow through solar absorbers. The licensing agreement pertains to thermal absorbers for solar collectors, manufactured by CGA Technologies using the so-called roll-bond process. With the licensing contract, the research institute and the company are bringing two technologies together to form one product.

With its new measurement procedures, the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems in Freiburg can offer more certainty to photovoltaic project developers and investors. The energy rating enables a precise yield prognosis for each location worldwide, therefore improving the bankability. Real environmental effects are taken into account in the testing laboratories and flow into the energy yield assessment.  Experts from Fraunhofer ISE’s own calibration laboratory “CalLab PV Modules” are present at the Intersolar Europe held from 19-21 June in Munich. They can be found at Booth B2.320 and are happy to provide qualified information.

The researchers Dr. Olivier Stalter, Florian Reiners, Michael Eberlin and Sebastian Franz from the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE in Freiburg received the SEMIKRON Innovation Award together with Frank Seybold from KACO new energy GmbH in Neckarsulm. From a total of 19 applicants, the jury selected the innovative power electronics to facilitate a complete off-grid village power supply in developing and threshold countries. With this technology the entire electricity for remote towns can be centrally generated and supplied with renewable energy.

The Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE today announced that it has joined forces with EV Group (EVG) to develop equipment and process technology to enable electrically conductive and optically transparent direct wafer bonds at room temperature. The new solutions, developed in partnership with Fraunhofer ISE based on EVG’s recently announced ComBond^® technology, aim to enable highly mismatched material combinations like gallium arsenide (GaAs) on silicon, GaAs on indium phosphide (InP), InP on germanium (Ge) and GaAs on gallium antimonide (GaSb). Direct wafer bonding provides the ability to combine a variety of materials with optimal properties for integration into multi-junction solar cells, which can lead to new device architectures with unparalleled performance.

Freiburg, May 22, 2013 In an ambitious industry project with the French company Soitec, Fraunhofer ISE is currently developing a new generation of multi-junction solar cells with efficiency potential as high as 50 % under concentrated sunlight. For this, the researchers are replacing the conventional triple-junction solar cell – which consists of semiconductors from groups III and V of the periodic system – by a new four-junction device. Two dual-junction cell structures are first grown on separate III-V compound semiconductor substrates and then fused together so efficiently that the interface promotes the current flow through the four-junction solar cell device. Multi-junction solar cells are used in concentrator PV power plants.

Secretary Ratan P. Watal in the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), Government of India and Prof. Eicke Weber, Institute Director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE, Freiburg signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) a short time ago in Berlin in the presence of Sujata Singh, the Indian Ambassador to Germany. The cooperation focuses on research, demonstration and pilot projects in the areas of photovoltaics, solar thermal and hydrogen.