Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE

Over the past decades, the renewable generation of electricity by photovoltaic solar energy (PV) has come down in costs dramatically and is now economically competitive with conventional generation using fossil fuels or nuclear reactors in an increasing number of markets. Convinced that solar electricity will play a dominant role in the energy supply of 2050 and given the leading role held by European research institutes in the development of PV technology, awardees of the Becquerel Prize collectively drew up a resolution. At the largest European photovoltaic conference, the 35th EU PVSEC in Brussels, the award-winning European scientists collectively expressed their concern that the European photovoltaic industry is threatened to be lost due to the strong competition from Asia. In particular, this pertains to the cell and module production, which makes up a large part of the value chain. This loss presents a strategic risk to the future electricity supply of Europe.

The Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE and the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, invite to the 2018 SOPHIA workshop »PV Module Reliability« from September 4 to 5 in Ljubljana, Slovenia. The workshop will feature reliability aspects in connection with new challenges imposed by novel components of PV modules, presently observed failure modes and the further development of suitable test cycles towards service life testing. The workshop will be embedded in a EUROREG workshop which is intended to provide a forum of global trends and current challenges on photovoltaics and nanophotonics in the fields of research, industry and market.

Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE reported that solar power production in Germany reached an all-time record of 6.7 TWh in July 2018. The installed photovoltaic capacity in Germany generated 15.1 % of the total electricity production in July, ahead of nuclear power (13.8 %). During the present heat wave, nuclear and coal plants are operating at reduced capacity in order to limit the amount of cooling water flowing into surrounding rivers and thus rising water temperatures. In this case, photovoltaic power fulfills an important grid-stabilizing function.

The Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft and the Freiburg Academy of Continuing Education (FRAUW) at the University of Freiburg are offering a joint master’s degree prgram for continuing education and three certificate programs in the areas of public safety, energy and sustainability. This cooperation between the Fraunhfer-Gesellschaft and the University of Freiburg has now been solidified and permanently strengthened through a master agreement. The partners are able to pursue their joint goal of supporting continuing education and developing new skill sets through this initiative. The agreement has been signed on July 31, 2018. Along with FRAUW and the Fraunofer Academy, other partners include the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE and the Fraunhofer Institute for High-Speed Dynamics, Ernst-Mach-Institut, EMI.

A newly developed solar thermal venetian blind uses the heat generated by solar radiation and feeds it via heat pipes to the hot water storage tank of the building. … When you think of solar thermal energy, you think of “black rectangles on the roof”. To date, this has been one barrier to the widespread [...]

It is not every day you meet the Federal Chancellor of Germany. However, for the current German Chancellor’s Fellows of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, this visit is on program every year. Recently, as the current German Chancellor Fellow and Guest Scientist at Fraunhofer ISE, I got an opportunity to meet Dr. Angela Merkel. Every [...]

Professor Christoph Reinhart came to Fraunhofer ISE as the winner of the Fraunhofer Bessel Research Award of the Humboldt Foundation for a research stay. He works as a building scientist and architectural educator at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he focuses on sustainable building design and environmental modeling. For the series “An Espresso [...]

In the wake of the changeover to renewables in the energy and transport sectors, storage systems are a key technology. They will play a major role in the energy transformation, from balancing the fluctuating feed-in from renewables through to making a 100 % renewable energy supply possible. Also in the transport sector, storage is crucial [...]