News
Artificial intelligence for a successful energy transition
Data-driven risk assessment offered by variante.energy aims at paving the way to a hundred-percent self-sufficiency with green electricity:
The Adlershof-based founding couple behind variate.energy provide decision-making support for companies, communities, and other organisations that seek to decrease their carbon emissions through wind and solar…
The contribution of decentralized electrolyzers to the energy transition
RLI conducts a study on small electrolyzers for the production of green hydrogen on behalf of Greenpeace Energy:
On behalf of Greenpeace Energy, RLI is preparing a study that examines the role of electrolysers for hydrogen production for the energy transition. It focuses in particular on small electrolyzers that could convert…
HZB researchers provide new insights into lead-free perovskite solar cells
How fluoride additives improve quality:
Tin halide perovskites are currently considered the best alternative to their lead-containing counterparts, which are, however, still significantly less efficient and stable. Now, a team led by Prof. Antonio Abate…
Faster development of efficient solar cells and LEDs thanks to LuQY Pro
HZB spin-off QYB Quantum Yield Berlin is launching a measurement instrument for optimising optoelectronic components:
Scientists from the Helmholtz Innovation Lab HySPRINT at HZB spun off the technology company QYB Quantum Yield Berlin GmbH at the beginning of April 2021. The spin-off is launching LuQY Pro, a ready-to-use measurement…
RLI develops online course on grid integration of e-mobility for RENAC
The course is aimed at grid operators and electricity providers who want to expand their portfolio to include charging infrastructure for e-vehicles:
On behalf of the Renewables Academy (RENAC), RLI has developed an online course that provides a basic introduction to grid integration of e-mobility. The course takes place entirely online and allows learners from…
Specialised in wind harvest
Adlershof's WINDnovation is thinking in terms of recycling when designing rotor blades:
Since its founding in autumn 2007, WINDnovation Engineering Solutions GmbH has truly lived up to its name: The Adlershof-based company has developed over 300 different rotor blades and an array of turbines for…
Dr. Kathrin Goldammer is spokeswoman for the energy technology cluster
The RLI Managing Director has been appointed as spokesperson for the joint energy technology cluster of the states of Berlin and Brandenburg:
RLI Managing Director Kathrin Goldammer has been appointed by Berlin’s Senator for Economic Affairs Ramona Pop and Brandenburg’s Minister of Economic Affairs Prof. Jörg Steinbach as spokesperson for the Energy…
Renske van der Veen heads new department “Atomic Dynamics in Light-Energy Conversion” at HZB
The researcher studies catalytic processes that enable the conversion of solar energy into chemical energy:
From June 2021, Dr. Renske van der Veen is setting up a new research group at HZB. The chemist is an expert in time-resolved X-ray spectroscopy and electron microscopy and studies catalytic processes that enable the…
HPS Home Power Solutions joins the European Clean Hydrogen Alliance
The Alliance is part of the European hydrogen strategy to support a sustainable hydrogen economy:
Berlin-based HPS Home Power Solutions, provider of picea, the world's first home solar-hydrogen power plant for completely independent carbon-free electricity use, today announced that it is joining the European Clean…
New insights into the structure of organic-inorganic hybrid perovskites
Team at HZB has analysed structural data of photovoltaic materials with a novel model:
In photovoltaics, organic-inorganic hybrid perovskites have made a rapid career. But many questions about the crystalline structure of this surprisingly complex class of materials remain unanswered. Now, a team at HZB…
Solar cells: Losses made visible on the nanoscale
Researchers from HZB and University of Utah, USA, have shown how contact layers of silicon solar cells generate loss currents and what their physical origin is:
Solar cells made of crystalline silicon achieve peak efficiencies, especially in combination with selective contacts made of amorphous silicon (a-Si:H). However, their efficiency is limited by losses in these contact…
HZB team researches inexpensive catalysts for the production of hydrogen
With a new instrument at BESSY II, they show how light activates MoS₂ layers to become catalysts:
Thin films of molybdenum and sulfur belong to a class of materials that can be considered for use as photocatalysts. Inexpensive catalysts such as these are needed to produce hydrogen as a fuel using solar energy.…
The perfect recipe for efficient perovskite solar cells
HZB team improved the composition of material inks for the simple and cost-effective production of solar cells:
A long-cherished dream of materials researchers is a solar cell that converts sunlight into electrical energy as efficiently as silicon, but that can be easily and inexpensively fabricated from abundant materials.…
HZB and Humboldt University agree to set up a catalysis research laboratory
Joint laboratory in the IRIS research building of the HU in Adlershof to further promote catalysis research in Berlin:
Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB) and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (HU) have signed a cooperation agreement with the aim of establishing a joint research laboratory for catalysis in the IRIS research building of HU in…
The electricity strategist
Catherina Cader is working towards a clean energy in remote areas:
She is frequently enamoured by images of the nightly earth from space. These bright points of light that lump together in certain places. Beside them, the vast zones of total darkness. Catherina Cader is fascinated by…
Perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells on the threshold of 30% efficiency
HZB team was able to improve the charge carrier transport and the stability of the solar cells:
An HZB team has published a report in the journal Science on the development of its current world record of 29.15% efficiency for a tandem solar cell made of perovskite and silicon. The tandem cell provided stable…
Kathrin Goldammer founding member of “Women in Green Hydrogen”
Managing Director of the Reiner Lemoine Instituts is part of a new international platform for female hydrogen experts:
RLI Managing Director Kathrin Goldammer is part of the founding team of the network “Women in Green Hydrogen”. This is an international platform for women working and researching in the field of green hydrogen. The…
Launch of the catalysis research platform CatLab in Adlershof
Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin and two Max Planck institutes want to achieve leaps of innovation in hydrogen research:
Hydrogen as a sustainable fuel source will play a key role in our energy system for the future. Hydrogen-based chemical energy media are needed as long-term storage repositories in the energy system and are crucial…
Mapping the landscape of Caesium based inorganic halide perovskites
HZB research team studies new compositions of perovskite materials for solar energy:
Scientists at HZB have printed and explored different compositions of caesium based halide perovskites (CsPb(BrxI1−x)3 (0 ≤ x ≤ 1)). In a temperature range between room temperature and 300 Celsius, they observe…
Order in the disorder
HZB team discovered density fluctuations in amorphous silicon:
For the first time, a team at HZB has identified the atomic substructure of amorphous silicon with a resolution of 0.8 nanometres using X-ray and neutron scattering at BESSY II and BER II. Such a-Si:H thin films have…