Press Releases 2023

Many people want to use the greenest electricity mix available to charge their electric cars, run their heat pumps or smart home appliances. With the infor-mation on the new “PowerSignal" app from the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE, this is now possible. The app, which shows the current share of renewables in the net public electricity generation for 12 European countries and the day-ahead electricity price for 34 European countries, is now available for Android devices. With this app, the users can adjust their electricity consumption with the renewable share accordingly.

Photovoltaic module manufacturers use modules measured by third parties as a reference when determining the output of individual modules in their production line. To select the right PV modules, developers of PV power plants rely on precise, independent output measurements to inspect the quality of the modules they purchased and to make accurate yield forecastings. For this purpose, the accredited calibration laboratory CalLab PV Modules of Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE and the National Metrology Institute of Germany (Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt, PTB) regularly compare their measurement results. This allows them to continuously improve their accuracy, ensuring that all stakeholders in the PV industry can rely on their independent measurements. The result of their most recent comparison: Once again, the results they produced were nearly identical, with the respective measured outputs (Pmpp) deviating less than half a percent from each other.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has set itself the goal of becoming one of the leading global producers of low-carbon hydrogen by 2031. With this aim, the UAE government commissioned the Fraunhofer Cluster of Excellence Integrated Energy Systems (CINES) and the consulting firm GHD Advisory to develop a National Hydrogen Strategy. The strategy, released yesterday at the second Emirates Energy Forum by the UAE Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure (MOEI), is a comprehensive analysis of the opportunities and obstacles for the future hydrogen economy in the UAE.

The Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE has developed and suc-cessfully commissioned the world’s first medium-voltage string inverter for large-scale power plants. By feeding power into the medium-voltage grid, the “MS-LeiKra” project team has demonstrated that PV inverters are technically capable of handling higher voltage levels. The benefits for photovoltaics in-clude enormous cost and resource savings for passive components and cables. The device lays the foundation for a new system concept for the next genera-tion of large-scale PV power plants, which can also be applied to wind turbines, electric mobility and industrial applications.

Green hydrogen and its derivatives – ammonia, methanol, and synthetic kerosene – store energy from the sun and wind in order to transfer it efficiently from distant regions to Europe. At the same time, many industries that cannot use electricity directly as an energy source will be dependent on these climate-neutral alternatives to fossil gas and oil in the future. On behalf of the H2Global Foundation, the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE has examined 39 regions in 12 countries preselected by H2Global to determine where the production of such Power-to-X (PtX) products, in conjunction with transport to Germany, would be most cost-effective by 2030. The result: Brazil, Colombia, and Australia offer particularly good conditions for the import of green ammonia, methanol, and kerosene. Imports of gaseous green hydrogen could come from southern Europe or North Africa, provided that pipelines are available in time for transport.

In recent years, some car manufacturers have already presented the first vehicle models with photovoltaics integrated into the roof. The roof is the easiest surface to use for on-board solar power generation. Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE have now gone one step further. As part of two publicly funded research projects, they have integrated solar cells into the standard sheet metal hood of a regular passenger car. Coupled with the research institute’s MorphoColor® technology, the solar-active surface can be color-matched to that of the vehicle. Visitors to IAA MOBILITY can have a closer look at the photovoltaic hood from September 5-11, 2023, at the Fraunhofer booth (Hall B1.D11) in Munich.