A joint study by the highly respected Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research finds that plug-in hybrid cars with at least 36 miles of electric-only range (think Chevy Volt) are just as good at keeping carbon emissions out of the atmosphere as pure battery electric cars (think Chevy Bolt).
Research led by the Fraunhofer Center For Sustainable Energy Systems finds that solar panels mounted above crops in an agricultural setting can raise the efficiency of the land by 60%. Further research is planned.
With its newest solar cell, German research organization Fraunhofer has managed to exceed the world record for multicrystalline silicon cells. The new cells convert an impressive 22.3% of incident solar energy into electricity, and the researchers think that the limits have not yet been reached.
If you were to walk into a solar store and purchase some of their best-selling PV panels, it is likely that their solar irradiance-to-electricity conversion efficiency would be around 17%. This is the typical efficiency (Fraunhofer ISE Photovoltaics Report, 2017) of the top-selling PV product, a multi-crystalline silicon panel. This means that for a typical panel, 17% of all incident solar energy is converted directly to usable electricity. This is quite impressive for a device that has no moving parts and can generate power at the location where the electricity is required (no transmission losses). It is no wonder that PV is already one of the cheapest power technologies available.
Fraunhofer Institute for Ceramic Technologies and Systems in Dresden, Germany, says it has developed new technology in the lab that could increase electric car range to 1,000 kilometers or more. The secret? More batteries in the same space. Ceramics play a large part in the process. In a conventional battery pack, the individual battery cells are surrounded by a separate outer casing. All those casings take up half of the space inside each battery pack. The connections to each cell are points where electrical resistance is high, reducing available power.
Fraunhofer has started an experiment with a new idea. According to Georg Küffner writing at FAZ, they built a sphere with concrete, diameter of three meters. Then they immersed that into the Bodensee lake. The idea is to have a large sphere at the bottom of some lake or ocean and use that as the lower reservoir of pumped storage
Following the entries of 56 different teams and companies to the SunRISE TechBridge Challenge, the judges have chosen 5 early-stage companies as winners after a thorough, multi-stage review process. For those unfamiliar with the SunRISE TechBridge Challenge, it’s a competition that was created to identify innovations in solar materials and … [continued]
Two new, commercial-ready plug-and-play home solar photovoltaic systems were recently demonstrated by the Fraunhofer USA Center for Sustainable Energy Systems at the organization’s “2016 Demo Day,” according to a new press release. The new plug-and-play solar photovoltaic (PV) systems are, according to Fraunhofer USA Center for Sustainable Energy Systems, simple … [continued]
Looking for some lazy Sunday reading? You’ve landed in the internet country. Bob Lutz Called 2017 Chevy Bolt EV a ‘Compliance Car’; Is It? Electric-car advocates are often passionate, with memories long enough to remember GM’s 2004 destruction of its pioneering fleet of EV1 electric cars. Since then, the company has built … [continued]
A megalithic ‘Supergrid’ connecting Northern Africa with Europe could help both regions reach near-100% renewable energy share. This is the primary conclusion from a new report published by Fraunhofer ISE, which was worked on by five separate Fraunhofer institutes, each using their individual expertise to examine the idea of a … [continued]
