News

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.

Dr. Oliver Höhn, researcher at the University of Freiburg and the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE, received a Consolidator Grant from the European Research Council (ERC). With the sum of two million euros and funding for a plasma etching system for semiconductor materials in groups III and V of the periodic table, the ERC grant will support Höhn in his research on highly efficient solar cells over the next five years as of 2024. Across Europe, 2130 scientists applied for this year’s ERC call for proposals.

A team of researchers of the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Research ISE and NWO-Institute AMOLF (Amsterdam) have fabricated a multijunction solar cell with an efficiency of 36.1 percent, the highest efficiency ever reached for a solar cell based on silicon. The team presented the new record at the European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference (EU PVSEC) in Lisbon on Thursday, September 21, 2023. The research project was funded through the Fraunhofer ICON program.

Perovskite-silicon tandem solar cells achieve efficiencies of over 30 percent and are frontrunners for the next generation of solar cells. A research team at the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE has now been able to demonstrate that triple-junction solar cells consisting of perovskite-perovskite-silicon subcells also hold considerable promise and have an even greater efficiency potential than double-junction tandem cells. As part of the Triumph research project funded by the European Commission and the RIESEN research project funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, the team developed a triple-junction solar cell with an open-circuit voltage of over 2.8 volts. This record figure confirms that the cell has excellent material properties for generating electricity, leading the scientists to deduce that it has an efficient solar cell architecture.

HoloSolis SAS, a company founded in 2022 by EIT InnoEnergy, IDEC GROUP and TSE, plans to build a production line for both PV solar cells and modules. The new company will be located close to the French-German border in the district of Sarreguemines. The factory aims to start production in 2025 and, at full capacity, will have a production capacity of five gigawatts per year. Based on a strategic collaboration agreement signed this summer, the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE will support HoloSolis in the technology selection and factory planning during the conceptual design and construction phases.

Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE are currently optimizing the large-scale production of proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC). Within the joint project "TiKaBe", innovative catalyst inks for use in different industrial coating processes are being developed. In a second re-search project called "BI-FIT", the focus is on shortening and simplifying the break-in procedure, during which the initial conditioning of fuel cells takes place. The researchers will be presenting current insights into their work at the international expo and conference hy-fcell from September 13-14, 2023 in Stuttgart. At Booth 4D55, the institute will be showing membrane electrode assemblies (MEAs) for heavy-duty applications as well as work on cell compo-nent characterization and lifetime testing.

The hybrid combination of solar thermal power plants, photovoltaics and storage promises cost-effective and stable electricity generation. Just such a system is to be developed in the newly launched „HybridKraft" project, funded by the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection and headed by the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE. The project focus is on developing an electric heater for molten salt storage tank that is suitable for large-scale power plants. Such solutions which convert renewable electricity into high-temperature heat for direct use or storage are also interesting for industrial applications.