News

After a productive year of activity, including publishing the industry-first Asset Management Best Practice Guidelines, SolarPower Europe's O&M and Asset Management Task Force elected Adele Ara from Lightsource BP as Chair, and Ralph Gottschalg from Fraunhofer CSP as Vice-Chair. The Task Force’s annual meeting took place on Friday 6 December, after the O&M event in London, with more than 20 participants. The session focused on the achievements of 2019 and discussed 2020's planned activities. Among other things, the Task Force has decided to further enhance the Asset Management Best Practice Guidelines and deliver a Version 2.0 in 2020, and venture further upstream by looking at best practices for Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) of solar power plants.

“Digitalization is the key to the future!” At the Fraunhofer Institute for the Microstructure of Materials and Systems IMWS in Halle (Saale) Dr. Dominik Lausch and his team have developed an innovative technology linking modern sensor technology with neuronal networks. Based on this work and together with his colleagues he founded DENKweit GmbH. In an interview he explains the idea behind the innovation – which is incredibly simple.

For his work “Machine learning assisted signal analysis in Acoustic Microscopy for non-destructive defect identification” Michael Kögel from the Fraunhofer Institute for the Microstructure of Materials and Systems IMWS in Halle (Saale) received the prize for the “Attendees‘ Best Paper” awarded by the international symposium ISTFA 2019 in Portland/USA.

At the International Conference on Sustainable Energy-Water-Environment (IC-SEWEN 19) in Qatar, Hamed Hanifi from the Fraunhofer Center for Silicon Pho-tovoltaic CSP was awarded for the "Best Student Oral Presentation" in the conference’s energy track. His presentation presented how solar modules should be interconnected and mounted in desert areas in order to reduce the yield loss from soiling.

At the International Conference on Sustainable Energy-Water-Environment (IC-SWEN 19) held in Qatar Hamed Hanifi from the Fraunhofer Center for Silicon Photovoltaics CSP received the “Best Student Oral Presentation” in the field of energy. His talk explained how solar modules should be connected and in-stalled in desert regions so as to reduce yield losses through soiling.

The requirements to be fulfilled by photovoltaic (PV) systems and components along the entire value chain are increasing as a result of ever greater use of and demand for renewable energies. In this context, issues such as making PV systems more affordable, better performing, longer lasting, and more reliable come to the fore. As a result, research institutes and companies in the solar industry need to cooperate much more intentionally; they must also consider potential needs to reduce the risks for all stakeholders along the entire value chain. On November 14 and 15, 2019, representatives from companies and research institutes discussed ways to achieve this during the »Quality Control of Solar PV Systems: Industrial Requirements and Associated Research Needs» workshop held by the Fraunhofer Center for Silicon Photovoltaic CSP in Brussels.

Chemical recycling, CO2 emissions using different chemical recycling routes, production of substitute fuels – these were the topics at the first meeting of the National Network for a Circular Carbon Economy NK2. The network was set up in January 2019 by the Fraunhofer Institute for the Microstructure of Materials and Systems IMWS and the Institute of Energy Process Engineering and Chemical Engineering IEC at the TU Bergakademie Freiberg. Its members are interested in discussing the circular carbon economy on a cross-sectoral basis and encouraging its development through cooperation.

The designer solar façade SOLAR_shell, a project by the Architekturinstitut Leipzig (a:iL) at Leipzig University of Applied Sciences (HTWK Leipzig), has been honored as the best project in the ‘System City’ category at the Energy Awards. The energy-efficient façade, which the Fraunhofer Center for Silicon Photovoltaics CSP helped create, won against 45 other innovative products, services, and business models. The Energy Awards are presented by the business newspaper Handelsblatt to highlight progressive developments in the energy sector.