Potential-induced degradation (PID) is still one of the main reasons for unpredictable power losses in PV power plants. Volker Naumann, Otwin Breitenstein, Klemens Ilse, Matthias Pander, Kai Sporleder and Christian Hagendorf of Fraunhofer CSP examine how the PID susceptibility of PV modules is influenced by environmental stress. It is found that PID may develop in originally PID-resistant modules after a period of one to three years of unsuspicious operation, depending on climatic conditions
Berlin could help defuse land conflicts if it ‘privileges’ floating plants on opencast mine water bodies via dedicated tenders, says review by Fraunhofer ISE.
US-Based wafer producer 1366 Technologies and ‘Silicon Module Super League’ (SMSL) member Hanwha Q CELLS have jointly hit a new record of 19.6% efficiency for cells using the 'Direct wafer' process.
Fraunhofer ISE said it was spearheading the largest research project (APV-Resola) in Germany to establish whether the dual use of land for the production of electricity using photovoltaic (PV) modules can be commercially viable with a range of crops grown on the same land.
Novel epitaxial wafer technology start-up NexWafe a spin-off from Fraunhofer ISE has raised €6 million in Series A funding from Swiss-based Private Equity firm Lynwood (Schweiz) AG.
After announcing a new world record in solar-cell efficiency two years ago, Fraunhofer ISE reports that it has set a new benchmark for efficiency at the module level.
Solar Frontier has broken a conversion efficiency record for CIS thin-film solar cells that has stood for over a year, achieving 22.3% efficiency on a 0.5cm² PV cell.
