Germany

Hansainvest Real Assets has switched on Europe’s largest solar plant – a 605 MW installation in Saxony, Germany. The project spans 500 hectares and operates under a power purchase agreement (PPA) with Shell Energy Europe.

MAN Truck & Bus says it will deliver 200 hydrogen vehicles to customers in Europe and some non-European countries by as early as 2025, while Provaris has revealed plans to develop a gaseous hydrogen import facility in Rotterdam.

A German research team has investigated the optical properties of perovskite/perovskite/silicon triple-junction cells and has found these devices may have a practical efficiency potential of 44.3% assuming idealized electrical parameters. These cells may also potentially achieve a fill factor of 90.1%.

A spinoff of Germany’s Fraunhofer Gesellschaft has developed a compact vehicle-integrated PV system integrated with medical support equipment to provide off-grid, off-road mobile healthcare in rural communities. The PV modules with integrated energy management system supply all the electricity required for maintaining a cold chain for vaccines, medicines and samples.

Germany’s K2 Systems has developed mounting systems that are specifically designed for facades, including walls made from masonry, concrete, sandwiched panels, trapezoidal metal sheets, and corrugated sheets.

Clickcon has launched an online tool to design solar carports and shades. The tool uses the German company’s mounting systems for the designed projects.

Scientists have analyzed what factors affect the emergence of solar associations and cooperatives in Germany. Applying the organizational ecology theory, they found a collective solar initiative in a given district may likely lead to creation of similar experiences in the same district.

PV Evolution Labs (PVEL), Extel Energy, and PI Berlin have unified under the Kiwa brand. Dutch company Kiwa, which has acquired the three PV testing laboratories over the past three years, says it aims to more effectively present its range of services for the solar industry.

Researchers at Germany’s Frauhofer ISE have analyzed the performance of a residential heat pump connected to a rooftop PV system relying on battery storage and have found that this combination significantly improves the performance of the heat pump while also increasing considerably the solar array’s self-consumption rate.

A German-Nigerian research group simulated the usage of mixtures of zeotropic fluids with varying boiling or condensing temperatures in industrial heat pumps. The best results were obtained with a mixture of cyclohexane and cyclopropane.