Fraunhofer ISE

Fraunhofer ISE has developed solar thermal facade panels that function as heat pump sources in buildings. The solution is made of ultra-high-performance concrete for aesthetic architectural facades.

Surface limitations facing the expansion of photovoltaics in Germany have led to a bold vision: installing PV arrays along motorways and creating a vast DC smart grid in the process. The plan could even be implemented across Europe.

While shingled cells have been around for a while, Tongwei’s adoption of the technology is notable as it is a manufacturer with considerable scale. If shingling can overcome some hurdles, it could prove a welcome solution as unshaded sites for PV become elusive in mature solar markets.

Fraunhofer ISE has presented the results of retrofit heat pump installations in multi-family homes in Germany. One demonstrator featured rooftop solar PV and a multi-source heat pump developed in partnership with Viessmann. It uses air and geothermal as heat sources.

A new three-year pilot project will assess the efficiency of vehicle-integrated PV and verify it with on-the-road monitoring and testing. The goal is to predict the charging infrastructure needed for electric vehicles with PV modules.

Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy and a group of heat pump manufacturers have started a project to replace gas and oil heating systems in multi-family homes with propane heat pumps featuring low-charge propane (R290) as the refrigerant.

Scientists result have confirmed a 22.2% efficiency rating for a flexible CIGS solar cell with Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems.

Scientists from Germany’s Fraunhofer ISE – together with a consortium of plant manufacturers, metrology companies, and research institutions – have developed a new production line concept for high-efficiency silicon cells, with a throughput of 15,000 to 20,000 wafers per hour – roughly double the usual amount.

Scientists at Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE) have investigated gallium-doping in p-type silicon wafers as a route to better performance. Testing these specially produced p-type wafers in TOPCon and heterojunction cell architectures, which several major PV cell manufacturers are gearing up to produce on more expensive n-type wafers, the scientists found that with gallium doping, the p-type wafers can achieve similar or even better cell efficiencies compared to those made so far with n-type wafers.

PV system operators in Germany recorded high revenues in July, as solar generation continued to break record after record.