Germany

Germany’s Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur) says developers likely installed 14.1 GW of new solar capacity in 2023, with more than 260,000 balcony solar modules now in operation.

Switzerland-based manufacturer Meyer Burger has developed black heterojunction (HJT) solar modules for balconies, featuring 800 W microinverters, smart control units, and mounting systems.

With the aim of improving coating processes for large area thin films for high-performing perovskite solar cells, German and Swiss researchers have developed deep learning and explainable artificial intelligence (XAI) technology. The results suggest it can be used to define optimal coating process parameters more quickly and more accurately.

Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute for Machine Tools and Forming Technology (Fraunhoer IWU) has developed a new online tool to calculate the size of rooftop solar arrays, heat pumps and batteries.

New statistics from the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (Fraunhofer ISE) show that PV systems in Germany generated around 59.9 TWh of solar power in 2023, with 6.4 TWh used for home consumption.

Thresholding methods have commonly been used to characterize the soiling accumulated on glass coupons. Researchers led by the Sapienza University of Rome have identified 16 automatic thresholding methods that may be used for analyzing soiling on PV panels.

This year is ending with a new record, but installation companies are looking for orders again, says Tim Rosengart, managing director of the Selfmade Energy supply platform. His figures show how falling module prices and the new market situation are putting pressure on PV system prices.

Germany-based BMZ Group has unveiled a plug-and-play, AC-coupled, outdoor commercial battery energy storage solution that can store from 68 kWh to 204 kWh of energy. The 10-foot container comes with an integrated inverter and a 10-year warranty.

The collaborative research project, which will run through 2025, is funded by the Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Action in Germany.

High throughput and high precision can help reduce solar cell production costs. A research group at Fraunhofer ISE has made progress with a laser system to process wafers for metallization. The system reportedly works 10 to 20 times faster.