Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE

Electrolyzers make it possible to greatly expand the use of renewable energies by producing hydrogen, which can be used to store clean energy. In order to facilitate the high-volume production of competitive stacks for PEM electrolysis in the near future, researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE are investigating scalable processes such as slot-die coating and screen printing for the production of catalyst layers for the membrane electrode assembly (MEA). They have now developed catalyst inks for both production processes that enable the production of catalyst layers with lower iridium loading and high throughput. This significantly reduces the material and manufacturing costs for PEM electrolyzers.

To ensure the stability of the distribution grid in critical situations, grid operators should be able to temporarily reduce the power of controllable consumers such as heat pumps and charging stations. The communication to enable this will operate via the so-called Controllable Local System (CLS) channel of the Smart Meter Gateway (SMGW). The joint research project "UtiliSpaces", funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), is addressing the implementation challenges in the practice. The Fraunhofer Institute for Energy Economics and Energy System Technology IEE is project coordinator. The role of the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE in the project is to test hardware and software for complex system controls in its Digital Grid Lab.

Every day several million silicon wafers are being produced worldwide for the photovoltaic industry, and the demand is rising sharply. At the same time, the industry is increasingly switching to large wafer formats with an edge length of up to 210 mm. Processing these wafers to produce large-format solar cells with at least the same quality and cycle rate as conventionally sized solar cells presents equipment manufacturers with new challenges, especially for laser processing. To ensure that this processing step does not become a bottleneck in the future, a research team at the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE has developed a novel system concept with industrial partners, which relies on the clever combination of On-the-Fly processing with ultra-fast scanning technology and lasers, high-end optics and sensor technology. Following the successful demonstration of the first system prototype in 2022, which achieved an effective throughput of over 15,000 wafers per hour, a second prototype that uses UV light to create particularly small structures is now in use at Fraunhofer ISE.

Several Fraunhofer institutes and facilities, including the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE and other partners, are working to establish the large-scale production of green hydrogen and its derivatives in Chile. The core of the project, which is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), is to research the potential for the production of hydrogen and liquid fuels from solar energy. In addition to the technical issues, the project partners are also investigating the economic, logistical, and socio-economic aspects. They are also supporting the installation of a pilot facility for the production of climate-neutral methanol and dimethyl ether in Chile.