December 11th, 2017 | by Steve Hanley
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)
November 24th, 2017 | by Steve Hanley
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.
October 9th, 2017 | by The Beam
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.
August 15th, 2017 | by Ricky Dunbar
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
May 5th, 2017 | by Steve Hanley
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
November 23rd, 2016 | by Guest Contributor
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
June 23rd, 2016 | by James Ayre
Following the entries of 56 different teams and companies to the SunRISE TechBridge Challenge, the judges have chosen 5 early-stage [&hellip
June 21st, 2016 | by James Ayre
Two new, commercial-ready plug-and-play home solar photovoltaic systems were recently demonstrated by the Fraunhofer USA Center for Sustainable Energy Systems [&hellip
May 8th, 2016 | by Zachary Shahan
Looking for some lazy Sunday reading? You’ve landed in the internet country. Bob Lutz Called 2017 Chevy Bolt EV a ‘Compliance [&hellip
April 21st, 2016 | by Joshua S Hill
A megalithic ‘Supergrid’ connecting Northern Africa with Europe could help both regions reach near-100% renewable energy share. This is the [&hellip
February 25th, 2016 | by Guest Contributor
Originally published on Sustainnovate. By Henry Lindon A new solar conversion efficiency world record for concentrator photovoltaic (CPV) solar modules [&hellip
February 16th, 2016 | by Guest Contributor
Originally published on Sustainnovate. By Henry Lindon The SunRISE TechBridge Challenge — a competition aiming to reduce the levelized cost [&hellip
December 15th, 2015 | by Guest Contributor
Originally published on Sustainnovate. By Henry Lindon A new prototype “intelligent battery cell” has been developed by researchers at the [&hellip
December 4th, 2015 | by Joshua S Hill
Offshore wind developers will now be able to gather greater data from potential wind sites thanks to a new offshore [&hellip
September 25th, 2015 | by Guest Contributor
Originally published on Sustainnovate. A solar conversion efficiency of 25.1% has been achieved for the first time for a “both [&hellip
September 16th, 2015 | by Zachary Shahan
Here’s a huge reading list for hump day. Hopefully it will help get you through to the weekend. 😀 (Click [&hellip
September 14th, 2015 | by William Steel
The end of August brought about an encouraging event for Germany’s renewables industry, when for several hours on Sunday, August [&hellip
September 9th, 2015 | by Zachary Shahan
This is an epic “clean transport highlights.” Hold onto your seats. (As always, click the subheadings to read the full [&hellip
