German Ambassador Opens CSE PV Lab (Image: German Consulate of Boston)

Fraunhofer USA's Center for Sustainable Energy Systems (CSE) has recently opened its first laboratory, a PV module innovation facility, in Cambridge, Massachusetts to enable research, development, testing and evaluation of new materials and production processes for photovoltaic solar modules. The goal is to increase module energy yield, reduce cost, and extend module durability. In that sense, a broad set of state of the art fabrication equipment and characterization tools has been installed at the facility.

The opening ceremony saw German Ambassador Scharioth and Massachusetts Secretary of Energy Ian Bowles joined by Fraunhofer USA Executive VP Dr. William Hartman, MIT Energy Initiative Director Ernest Moniz, and Deputy Director of Fraunhofer's Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE), Andreas Bett.

The facility also serves as the latest link in the "Transatlantic Climate Bridge", an initiative launched by the German government in the autumn of 2008 in an effort to unite like-minded German and American institutions in the fight against climate change…