In December 2016, the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology, as the leading ministry for energy transition, launched the consultation process for a new energy research programme. This process involved all relevant actors in energy research and the energy industry at an early stage in the discussion on the further development of energy research funding policy and is to be completed by the end of 2017. The members of the Research Network Renewable Energies have developed concrete expert recommendations for the consultation process on the 7th Energy Research Programme, which are now presented in a brochure.
Five photovoltaics working groups address all approaches in order to further improve the integration of photovoltaics into energy systems and to further reduce the levelized cost of electricity of photovoltaics: a high quality and high efficiency of the wafers and modules, a long lifetime, low production and material costs as well as flexible system architectures. The mentors of “AG 2 – Crystalline Silicon – new approaches for high-performance modules” were Prof. Dr. Rolf Brendel from ISFH and Mrs. Kristin Lüdemann from the tool manufacturer Von Ardenne.