Germany

The EU-funded Laperitivo project aims for 22% efficiency in 900 cm² opaque perovskite modules and 20% efficiency in semi-transparent ones. The project partners include imec, Fraunhofer ISE, TotalEnergies, and EDF.

New research from Germany shows that investing in residential PV remains an optimal choice even when price breaks on electricity and natural gas are applied. The scientists quantified the savings that PV systems achieved between 2019 and 2022, when the COVID-19 crisis and the outburst of the war in Ukraine made prices in the electricity markets extremely volatile.

Germany’s new solar installations surged to 790 MW in August, contributing to 10.23 GW of newly installed PV capacity for the first eight months of this year.

German fluid management company Lutz-Jesco introduced a system aimed at supporting pumping and water disinfection in cases of blackouts. The hub is preconfigured to work with solar panels, a battery charge controller, an inverter, and cabling.

Paxos Solar has developed a new glass-glass PV tile that integrates with heat pumps, featuring Longi’s back-contact solar cells. The 44 W, 59.5 cm x 48 cm tile can also produce heat for residential systems.

Envertech says it has developed microinverters for PV systems supporting up to 60 modules, allowing up to four modules per unit with separate maximum power point tracking.

Solevi, a German electroluminescence (EL) inspection company, has launched drone-based electrical inspection services for rooftop solar installation in Germany with plans to automate further and expand geographically.

King Abdullah University of Science and Technology researchers have told pv magazine that hydrogen storage pipelines and gravel could become a reality in lakes or water reservoirs in Europe, the United States, Japan, or China within 10 years. “The technology required to implement the proposed system is available, simple and cheap,” they said.

A group including scientists from Insititute for Solar Energy Research Hamelin (ISFH) and German PV equipment manufacturer Centrotherm has developed a POLO back junction solar cell by using an industrial plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) system with a low-frequency plasma source. The device achieved a slightly higher efficiency than a reference device fabricated via more expensive atomic layer deposition (ALD).

The device developed by TU Bergakademie Freiberg researchers uses aluminum as an anode, graphite as a cathode, and a polymer-based solid electrolyte. It is being validated and further developed for industrial production. The goal is storage capacity of 10 kWh.