Press / Newsroom

The American solar cell manufacturer TALON PV is building a 4-gigawatt manufacturing facility for high-efficiency TOPCon solar cells in the USA, with a targeted start of production by the end of 2026. The Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE supports the company in this endeavor. As part of the ramp-up, the research institute is establishing a pilot production line for TALON PV's TOPCon solar cells at its Photovoltaic Technology Evaluation Center (PV-TEC) in Freiburg, Germany. This pilot facility will enable TALON PV to refine both its product design and manufacturing processes. At RE+ 2025, from September 8 to 11 in Las Vegas, scientists from Fraunhofer ISE will provide an overview of different photovoltaic factory concepts and insights into technology selection.

In a joint research effort, scientists from the University of Ottawa, the National Research Council Canada NRC and Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE developed photonic power converters which convert 1446 nanometer laser light into electrical power with unprecedented 53.6 percent efficiency and an output voltage above 2 volts. These advancements pave the way for long-distance power transmission via optical fibers, for example in telecommunications, as well as free space applications. The results have recently been published open access in Cell Reports Physical Science.

In the course of the energy transition, the proportion of converter-based generation plants in the electricity grid is increasing rapidly, while conventional power plants are being taken off the grid at the same time. In the “SUREVIVE” project, a consortium from research and the energy industry is investigating for the first time in the German distribution grid how grid-forming inverters and a large battery storage system can stabilize the electricity grid. In preparation for the field test, the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE is testing the systems in its multi-megawatt laboratory.

The groundbreaking ceremony on July 22, 2025 marked the start of construction for the Engineering Center for Sustainability (Ingenieurzentrum Nachhaltigkeit – IZN) on Freiburg’s airport campus. The new building will foster closer collaboration between Freiburg’s five Fraunhofer institutes and the University of Freiburg under the umbrella of the Department of Sustainable Systems Engineering (INATECH).

Anup Premaraj Kamath, Research assistant at the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE and master’s student at Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, received the 1st “Bruno Scrosati Award” for his outstanding approach to the field of electrochemistry and energy storage. The award for international master’s students enrolled at a non-Italian university is in honor of late Prof. Bruno Scrosati, a pioneer in the early development of Lithium-ion batteries.