Press Releases 2013

“It’s been an exciting journey so far. I’m still amazed sometimes at how far we’ve already come with solar energy and I’m happy to still be around to enjoy the fruits of my labor.” This quotation from Prof. Dr. Adolf Goetzberger on being named European Inventor of the Year four years ago still holds true. On November 29, 2013, the founder of the Fraunhofer ISE is celebrating his 85th birthday with family, colleagues from the institute and companions alike.

Despite difficult times for the solar industry, Europe remains at the technological forefront in the field of photovoltaics. Fraunhofer ISE demonstrates this fact with its new record: 24 percent efficiency for a silicon solar cell which uses an n-type base material and a novel concept for the rear contact. The special feature of this cell is a so-called passivated contact covering the entire rear surface.

The Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE in Freiburg, Germany has been awarded project funds within the framework of the U.S. SunShot Initiative. They are one of only three research partners in the program who are not from the USA. The SunShot Initiative was started in 2011 by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). Its aim is to reduce the electricity generation costs for solar electricity in the U.S. down to six U.S. cents per kilowatt hour, thereby making solar energy competitive with conventional fossil fuel energy sources. For over 30 years, Fraunhofer ISE has been working on increasing the energy efficiency of solar cells.

Dr. Martin Schubert of the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE was awarded the Ulrich Gösele Young Scientist Award 2013 for his research work on the measurement, simulation and origin of impurities in multicrystalline silicon. The award ceremony took place on October 23, on the occasion of the 7th International Conference on Crystalline Silicon for Solar Cells (CSSC-7) in Fukuoka, Japan.

In a round robin test, the Fraunhofer ISE CalLab PV Modules compared their results with three other top international measurement labs for photovoltaic (PV) modules: NREL in the USA, AIST in Japan and the JRC/ESTI of the European Commission in Ispra, Italy. The results of the round robin showed that the measurement precision in all four leading laboratories was comparable, namely with a deviation of ±1% from the mean. For investors in the growing global PV market, this is good news with consideration to quality assurance.

Highly modern power transistors based on gallium nitride (GaN) enable power electronic switches to operate at much higher switching frequencies compared to those based on silicon (Si). An increased power density per volume and per weight, reduced costs, less material use and, in the case of a mobile system, increased system efficiency are among the advantages. Solutions and concepts for high-frequency power electronics of the future shall be developed in the collaborative project “GaN-resonant – Efficient, highly compact high frequency power electronics with GaN transistors”, which is sponsored by the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF). “GaN-resonant“ was launched on July 1, 2013 and will be funded with around 1.2 million euro over the next three years by the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF) in the context of its funding announcement “Leistungselektronik zur Energieeffizienzsteigerung (Power Electronics for Increasing Energy Efficiency)“.

The Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE, Soitec, CEA-Leti and the Helmholtz Center Berlin jointly announced today having achieved a new world record for the conversion of sunlight into electricity using a new solar cell structure with four solar subcells. Surpassing competition after only over three years of research, and entering the roadmap at world class level, a new record efficiency of 44.7% was measured at a concentration of 297 suns. This indicates that 44.7% of the solar spectrum's energy, from ultraviolet through to the infrared, is converted into electrical energy. This is a major step towards reducing further the costs of solar electricity and continues to pave the way to the 50% efficiency roadmap.

An exhibition taking place in front of the Congress Center Concert Hall in Freiburg between September 23 and 25 unveils how solar collectors manufactured from plastic may look in the future. The Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE, which has been conducting research and development in this area for many years, is using the event to present polymeric solar thermal collectors and components alongside its industrial partners. Under the motto efficiency and design, the exhibits provide an insight into research trends and product innovations for solar thermal applications. The exhibition is taking place as part of the Solar Heating and Cooling Conference, for which Fraunhofer ISE is the scientific chair.

Solar thermal systems are able to meet a significant portion of heating requirements in many industrial and commercial settings. For many years, Fraunhofer ISE has been committed to optimizing solar process heat and launching it on the market. The institute recently organized an expert workshop entitled “The Emerging Market for Solar Process Heat.” What’s more, one of Fraunhofer ISE’s current research projects is working on a concept for utilizing solar heat in the laundry business.

The 6th Solar Summit Freiburg takes place on October 23, 2013, in the conference center Konzerthaus Freiburg. Fraunhofer ISE researchers as well as other experts from research and industry will present the newest highlights and trends in solar energy conversion. The main focus will be on grid integration. Registration for the Solar Summit Freiburg is now open. Directly after the conference, the annual meeting of the FVEE (ForschungsVerbund Erneuerbare Energien) will also be held at the Konzerthaus Freiburg this year.

The Fraunhofer Energy Alliance will become technology partner of the Munich Network and therewith part of the cleantechnet, a network committed to linking players from industry and science who are acting sustainably. By jointly organizing events, such as the annual Munich Cleantech Conference and the CleantechEves, a platform is to be established to promote synergies between players in the cleantech branch. The cooperation of Fraunhofer Energy Alliance and the Munich Network aims at stimulating the exchange of ideas and perspectives in the fields of renewable energies, energy efficiency, smart grids and energy storage.

For his presentation on increasing the efficiency of silicon solar cells through upconversion, Stefan Fischer, Ph.D. student at Fraunhofer ISE, received the Best Student Presentation Award at the 39th IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC) in the category “Fundamentals and New Concepts”. Every semiconductor material has an inherent upper efficiency limit for the conversion of sunlight into electrical energy. By employing so-called upconverters, these limits can be overcome and higher solar cell efficiencies can be achieved. In silicon solar cells, upconverters modify the infrared part of the solar spectrum so that the solar cell is able to use that part. Stefan Fischer presented this topic at the IEEE PVSC Conference in Tampa, Florida, where he was awarded the prize on June 21st, 2013.

On July 4, 2013 Fraunhofer ISE officially opened its new laboratory building in Freiburg, Germany in the presence of of the Science Minister of Baden-Württemberg, Theresia Bauer and other representatives from politics, finance and research. In the laboratories covering an area of 2400 m², scientists work on coatings, microstructures and optical and photonic applications for the generation of heat and electricity from solar energy. The researchers at Fraunhofer ISE developed the energy efficient building concept and realized it together with a team of planners, architects and industry partners. Strategies included the heating and cooling concepts through to the building-integrated photovoltaics.

At the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE in Freiburg, scientists developed a highly efficient system to inductively charge electric vehicles. The wireless energy transfer to the car battery is carried out by means of an electromagnetic field between two coils: one installed in the car and a second, stationary coil integrated into the street or the parking place. A cable connecting the charging station and the electric vehicle is no longer necessary with this system. The first prototypes of the wireless charging system prove to be very efficient: An efficiency of 97.4 percent was achieved for the inductive power transmission at a coil distance of 13 cm. The transmitted power reaches up to 22 kW.

This year, the Einstein Award of SolarWorld AG and a Junior Einstein Award were awarded to scientists at Fraunhofer ISE. The director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE), Prof. Dr. Eicke R. Weber, was distinguished for his contribution to European solar energy research. The young researcher Pierre Saint-Cast was awarded the Junior Einstein Award for successfully developing a new passivation method for silicon solar cells. Dr. Frank Asbeck, CEO of SolarWorld, praised Prof. Weber as one of the greatest solar researchers in Europe. Under his direction, Fraunhofer ISE develops important know-how for the solar industry and carries it out to application maturity. But his area of work extends beyond this, Frank Asbeck says: “Eicke Weber is one of the European communicators and propagators for solar energy per se. He gave solar energy a voice, which is heard beyond the scientific community and reaches into politics and society at large.”

On sunny days during midday, up to a third of the German electricity demand is supplied by solar power. Because of this, solar power plants that feed into the medium voltage grid must meet the medium-voltage directive valid for Germany. Among other criteria, the directive requires an active contribution to grid stabilization. As a service to the grid, the power plants must be able to regulate active and reactive power, which serve as stabilizing factors for the grid frequency and voltage during normal operation. PV power plants are required to provide not only static voltage control but also dynamic grid support to guarantee grid stabilization during grid faults and voltage sag events. The security of supplies can be guaranteed only when all power plants, including renewables, react correctly and quickly to the actual situation on the electricity grid.

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.

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.

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 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.

PV Rollout – 3rd European American Solar Deployment Conference, Atlanta, Georgia— February 28, 2013— VDE, a globally recognized premium certification body, today announced the establishment of a U.S.-based wholly owned subsidiary, VDE Americas. One of the first key activities is the introduction of a set of premium tailored products for the testing and certification of complete large scale PV systems with the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE, a world-class applied research institute for solar energy. The new quality mark—VDE Quality Tested for PV Power Plants—verifies the complete certification of solar photovoltaic (PV) power plants, including quality, performance and safety of the PV system.

Photovoltaic systems are different, but not more dangerous, than traditional electrical installations. This is the conclusion drawn at a fire protection workshop held on January 24, 2013 by the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE and TÜV Rheinland at the Solar Info Center in Freiburg. The workshop was attended by 120 participants, including manufacturers, researchers, representatives from the fire brigade and insurance companies. They agreed that the best fire protection is the adherence to the existing regulations through qualified skilled workers.

Freiburg and Abu Dhabi, January 17, 2013 The International Renewable Energy Agency IRENA and the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to enhance their cooperation. IRENA, the global hub for renewable energies, is based in Abu Dhabi. Fraunhofer ISE in Freiburg is one of the world’s leading solar energy research institutes that works for providing technologies for the transformation of the global energy system towards the efficient use of ultimately 100% renewable energy. “By joining forces we intend to create synergies and accelerate the deployment of energy efficiency and renewable energy solutions on a global level,” said Prof Dr Eicke R. Weber, Director of Fraunhofer ISE at the signing ceremony which took place on Freiburg and Abu Dhabi, January 17, 2013 The International Renewable Energy Agency IRENA and the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to enhance their cooperation. IRENA, the global hub for renewable energies, is based in Abu Dhabi. Fraunhofer ISE in Freiburg is one of the world’s leading solar energy research institutes that works for providing technologies for the transformation of the global energy system towards the efficient use of ultimately 100% renewable energy.

Fraunhofer and The University of British Columbia UBC in Vancouver, Canada will partner to jointly develop technologies for sustainable energy production and supply.

On January 15, 2013, the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE, located in Freiburg, participates in the Zayed Future Energy Prize award ceremony. The Institute competes as one of three finalists in the category Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) for the well-endowed prize. The candidates have been selected concerning their impact affecting tangible industrial, social or environmental changes as well as their leadership in the field.

The Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE and SCHOTT Solar AG have agreed on the transfer of 111 patent families in the field of crystalline silicon photovoltaics. With this transfer, both partners ensure that comprehensive know-how in the photovoltaic sector remains in Europe. “We have established an important milestone for keeping this future-oriented technology in Germany,” says the Institute’s director, Prof. Eicke Weber.