Prof. Dr. Markus Hölzle, the new member of the ZSW’s Board of Directors and head of the Electrochemical Energy Technologies Division in Ulm. Photos: Alexander Fischer / ZSW
Via EUREC Member, ZSW
Prof. Dr. Markus Hölzle named Head of the Electrochemical Energy Technologies Division at the Ulm location
The Centre for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research Baden-Württemberg (ZSW) has appointed Prof. Dr. Markus Hölzle to its Board of Directors. The 54-year-old executive has headed up the Electrochemical Energy Technologies Division at the Ulm location since October 1, 2020. Before joining the ZSW, he was Global Director Battery Materials Development at BASF. His new position at the ZSW is associated with a professorship for Eelectrochemical Energy Storage and Energy Conversion at the University of Ulm. The ZSW in Ulm conducts applied research on batteries and fuel cells. These technologies play a key role in a climate-friendly, greenhouse gas-neutral economy.
Markus Hölzle has a 25-year career in the chemicals sector to his credit, where his work focused on battery materials, components for fuel cell systems and catalysts. Hölzle succeeds Prof. Dr. Werner Tillmetz, who retired two years ago after 14 years on the Board of Directors. In the interim, Dr. Margret Wohlfahrt-Mehrens and Dr. Ludwig Jörissen had managed the ZSW in Ulm as its acting heads.
“We are delighted to have gained a proven expert with many years’ experience in the battery and fuel cell sector,” says Prof. Dr. Frithjof Staiß, Managing Director of the ZSW. “With his industry expertise, the ZSW will continue driving the transfer of technology from research to industry.”
For the complete press release, please click here.
Boosting the Performance of Highly Efficient Thin-Film Solar Cells
Research team pinpoints potential for improving CIGS solar cells
The efficiency of today’s thin-film solar cells with the compound semiconductor made of copper, indium, gallium and selenium (CIGS) has already topped the 23 percent mark, but now a further increase looks to be within reach. A team staffed with researchers from the Centre for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research Baden-Württemberg (ZSW), Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) and the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB) recently identified a key point where the performance of thin-film solar cells can be improved for the cell to convert more sunlight into electricity. Published in the renowned science journal Nature Communications in August 2020, the results of this investigation reveal how manufacturers of CIGS thin-film solar cells can achieve even higher efficiencies.
Great strides have been made in recent years towards CIGS thin-film solar cells’ maximum theoretical efficiency of about 33 percent, but around ten percentage points of potential remains untapped. This shortfall is attributable to loss mechanisms in the CIGS solar cell in the functional layers and at diverse interfaces. Where exactly and why these losses occur has been a point of conjecture and the subject of much debate among experts.
For the complete press release, please read here .
The paper in Nature Communications can be accessed here.
Lab plant for depositing the CIGS layer in a coevaporation process.