
In February 2017, a fire rendered the equipment at Fraunhofer ISE’s Photovoltaic Technology Evaluation Center PV-TEC in the Solar Info Center in Freiburg completely unusable. Sixteen months later, the leading PV technology platform for material manufacturers and suppliers operating in the PV industry is being reopened. Since the fire, ongoing projects had been delayed, but could nevertheless be continued in other laboratories. Fitted out with new equipment, PV-TEC will now enter the next level of technical development in photovoltaics. The objectives are creating higher solar cell efficiency, improving productivity in the field of process technology and – not least – helping with the restart of PV cell and module production in Europe, which is an aim of both the research community and industry.