For the development of next-generation, high-performance solar cells and modules, Meyer Burger Technology AG (Thun, Switzerland) has brought renowned partners on board and signed corresponding multi-year cooperation agreements. Together with CSEM from Switzerland, Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB), the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE in Freiburg, and the Institute of Photovoltaics at the University of Stuttgart, the company is working on the industrialisation of perovskite tandem technology, which is expected to allow the industrial production of solar cells with efficiencies in excess of 30 percent in the future.
First Solar, Inc. (Tempe, Arizona) plans to invest approximately $270M in a dedicated research and development (R&D) innovation centre in Perrysburg, Ohio. The new facility is believed to be the first of its scale in the United States and is expected to accelerate American leadership in the development and production of advanced thin film photovoltaics (PV).
Glass facades characterise modern architecture. While solar radiation serves to support heating in winter, the building interior heats up in summer and requires active cooling. Smart windows can regulate the solar radiation according to the weather situation – a forward-looking solution in times of energy saving. Fraunhofer FEP (Dresden, Germany) has now succeeded in producing the world's first thermochromic layer on ultra-thin glass in a roll-to-roll process. These results will make mechanical blinds superfluous in the future and at the same time reduce the cooling and heating energy requirements of a building.
