Press Releases 2020

The European research initiative BATTERY 2030+ is now getting going. The ambition is to make Europe the world-leader in the development and production of the batteries of the future. These batteries need to store more energy, have a longer life, and be safer and more environmentally friendly than today’s batteries in order to facilitate the transition to a more climate-neutral society. The project is led from Uppsala University.

The data platform energy-charts.de of the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE is the most comprehensive database for power generation in Germany. Since 2014, the site gathers data on power generation from various neutral sources and makes it accessible to the public. The site has been further developed in the InGraVi project which was funded by the Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt (DBU) and is now ready for relaunch. Changes were made so that the correlations between different data categories can be more quickly understood. DBU Secretary General Alexander Bonde remarks, "The energy transition is a generational task which must be implemented quickly. Digital platforms such as the Energy Charts help to objectify the discussion. What effect does CO2 pricing have? This will become more transparent with the relaunch: The website now correlates new data, such as electricity exchange prices and CO₂ prices, so that it becomes clear at what cost level coal-based electricity generation is no longer profitable for power plant operators.

In the first phase of the planned expansion, the Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy Systems IWES is officially putting into operation a new test bench in Bremerhaven in the scope of the Hil-GridCoP project together with the Lord Mayor of the City of Bremerhaven, Melf Grantz, Timo Haase from the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi), and the project partners Vestas Nacelles Deutschland GmbH and Nordex Energy GmbH. In the future, the newly erected hall will see converter and generator systems for multi-megawatt wind turbines tested for their electrical grid compatibility. The Fraunhofer IWES aims to expand its testing capacities for the electrical systems of wind turbines and other power generation systems in two further expansion stages. More than € 30 million in total are set to be invested in expanding the testing infrastructure in Bremerhaven.

Uganda’s Vision 2040 aims at building a green economy and clean environment where the ecosystem is sustainably managed, and the livability of the urban systems greatly improved. This calls for building a modern energy sector that creates economic opportunities and enhances access to green energy at affordable price which can be achieved by bridging the gap between industry and the academia, and commercialization of research and development.

Higher efficiencies for solar cells and thus a faster expansion of photovoltaics and an acceleration of the energy transition – This is the objective of the researchers at Fraunhofer ISE when working on tandem photovoltaics. They will present the latest results of their work on tandem solar cells of different material classes at the European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition EU PVSEC, which will be held online from September 7-11, 2020.

In the field of photovoltaics, intensive research is being carried out to continually improve solar cell efficiency. Increasingly, the focus is on tandem photovoltaics, in which high-performance solar cell materials are brought together in various combinations in order to use the solar spectrum even more efficiently when converting light into electrical energy. Fraunhofer ISE is now reporting a new record efficiency of 25.9 percent for a III-V/Si tandem solar cell grown directly on silicon. This cell was produced on a low-cost silicon substrate for the first time – marking an important milestone on the way to economical solutions for tandem photovoltaics.

As a predominantly arid country, South Africa faces the enormous challenge of managing existing resources sustainably. In addition to the scarce water resources, South Africa also faces energy shortages within a system that is dominated by fossil fuel generation, as well as challenges with regard to food security. Stellenbosch University and the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft have now established the "Fraunhofer Innovation Platform for the Water-Energy-Food Nexus at Stellenbosch University" as part of a strategic partnership. The objective of this long-term cooperation is to jointly develop tailored technological and cross-sectoral solutions for water, energy and food security – for the benefit of people and the environment.

Fraunhofer participates in a binational research and development cooperation between Germany and Morocco to develop and promote hydrogen technology and the "Power-to-X" sector in the Maghreb state. Fraunhofer IGB has already carried out studies in this field and is working with Moroccan research and industry partners in the "Green Ammonia" project.

To meet the evolving needs of climate change and the German energy transition, as well as combat the rising energy costs for end consumers, more and more households are adding home storage systems to their PV systems. A major challenge of PV home storage is that the batteries are charged within a few hours in intense sunlight and then discharged at very low power, or partial load, over a long time period during the night. Because of this, battery inverters in home storage systems should have high conversion efficiency over the largest power range possible. In the HyBaG project, which started in 2017, the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE in collaboration with Kaco New Energy and STS - Spezial-Transformatoren Stockach has developed a low-loss hybrid inverter which functions efficiently even at partial load. With the new inverter, private households can save up to 250 euros annually.

Unprecedented precision and speed are the outstanding features of a novel high-throughput system for the metallization of silicon solar cells and other functional printing applications. The system is able to realize high-precision coating processes using rotary screen printing and flexographic printing with a throughput corresponding up to 8000 components per hour on an industrial scale. The demonstrator machine was developed by a project consortium under the joint leadership of the ASYS Automatisierungssysteme GmbH and the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE. In addition to solar cells, the system enables high-precision printing on single components, e.g. for applications in the field of hydrogen technology, sensor technology or power electronics.