Press Releases 2018

Minimizing the water consumption of Solar Thermal Power (CSP) plants is an important issue, as this kind of solar power generation is often found in arid areas where the solar irradiation is high. Since these regions are also dusty, the associated yield reduction due to local dust deposition and the costs of cleaning are relevant factors. Particularly in regions lacking water, innovative water saving solutions for cooling and mirror cleaning are needed to significantly reduce the water consumption of solar thermal power plants. Any conflict of water use should be avoided to allow high acceptance of the technology. In the MinWaterCSP project, the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE worked together with its partners on several approaches to reduce the water consumption in CSP plants.

Three innovative 20 meter long rotor blades that were developed within the context of the SmartBlades2 project will be assessed under natural weather and wind conditions in Boulder, Colorado (USA), over the next four months. For this purpose, the rotor blades, which were designed by the Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy Systems (IWES) and built by the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR), have been successfully installed in the United States at the Department of Energy's National Wind Technology Center (NWTC) of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).

“I have always been interested in problems that were thought to be unsolvable.” This quote stemming from Prof. Dr. Adolf Goetzberger stands both for his scientific career as well as for his unwavering conviction as founder of Fraunhofer ISE, which he launched and led to success. Goetzberger not only advanced photovoltaic technology, a key pillar of a sustainable future energy system, but from the beginning on also incorporated research on the systemic aspects of the energy transformation at the institute, already perceiving the importance.

Better batteries for a greater range of electric vehicles – this is the goal of the “EMBATT-goes-FAB” project sponsored by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy. For that reason, the four project partners thyssenkrupp System Engineering GmbH, IAV GmbH, Daimler AG and the Fraunhofer Institute for Ceramic Technologies and Systems IKTS are developing bipolar batteries and processes for their fabrication. Thanks to their unique stacked layout, a higher storage capacity and, ultimately, a greater range of the vehicle are achieved using the same surface area. The innovative battery technology will now be taken to the next level of maturity and thus one step closer to industrialization.

Concentrator Photovoltaics (CPV) has by far achieved the highest efficiency for the conversion of sunlight into electricity. The basis for this latest achievement lies in the special multi-junction solar cells as well as the perfect interplay between the cell and the module optics. In the EU-funded project CPVMatch, a consortium of research institutions and companies has demonstrated how to optimize both of these aspects and thus better exploit the potential of this technology. The achieved module efficiency of 41.4 % is the highest value ever measured for a photovoltaic module.

In a new study, Fraunhofer ISI together with the Institute for Resource Efficiency and Energy Strategies (IREES) reviewed the evaluation framework for electricity access´ conditions in developing and emerging countries, which is applied for monitoring the attainment of the sustainable development goals of the United Nations. The developed approach includes the productive use of electricity, which plays a central role for economic development, as well as for the achievement of climate change goals. The study aims to map different needs regarding the electricity supply of households and commercial and industrial applications and contribute to the implementation of sustainable energy strategies.

The starting signal for the construction of a large-scale plant for the production of biofuels from sewage sludge was given on Wednesday (7.11.2018) in Hohenburg in the district of Amberg-Sulzbach. Commissioning is planned for the beginning of 2020. The guests were the District Administrator of the LK Sulzbach-Rosenberg, Richard Reisinger, the 1st Mayor of Hohenburg, Florian Junkes, the Director of the Fraunhofer Institute Sulzbach-Rosenberg, Prof. Dr. Andreas Hornung and the Project Manager TO-SYN-FUEL, Dr. Robert Daschner. At the invitation of the client Karl-Heinz Stiegler, the former World Rally Champion Walter Röhrl turned the first sod as guest of honour.

Two of the world’s leading institutions when it comes to wind energy, Danish DTU Wind Energy and German Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy Systems IWES have joined forces and national funded projects in the new €17.6 million RELIABLADE project creating a strategic collaboration to strengthen research collaboration and offer new innovative services to European industrial partners.

After a successful assessment center at the Federal Research Ministry the innovative regional growth center “smood” will now take up its work. In the next years, new products and services will be developed to energetically remodel an existing neighborhood. IKTS will conduct research into a decentralized storage system, which will store energy from renewable sources.

The Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE and Heraeus are researching and optimizing novel, selectively coated cell connectors in a joint research project. The Selectively Coated Ribbon (SCRTM) cell connector achieves an average gain of 1.9 W in conventional 60-cell solar modules. The connector can be used in industrial PV module manufacturing without system modification and at no extra cost. Fraunhofer ISE has successfully tested modules with the SCR connector in its accredited TestLab PV Modules. Heraeus and Ulbrich developed a process for the production of the efficient cell connector and presented the new product to the professional audience in September 2018 at the EU PVSEC in Brussels.