Welcome to the University of Stuttgart

Success in research at the Institute for Photovoltaics

Photovoltaic systems are indeed enjoying a boom worldwide, yet the situation for German manufacturers of solar cells and module is critical. The reasons for this are worldwide excess capacities and manufacturers from China who have flooded the world market with modules with approx. 15 % efficiency at dumping prices. German and other European manufacturers will only be able to keep up if they are able to offer cells and modules with higher degrees of efficiency at competitive prices. The Institute for Photovoltaics (ipv) at the University of Stuttgart has now set a new record in the hunt for the highest degrees of efficiency using the simplest possible production processes. In a project funded by the Federal Environmental Ministry, success was achieved in manufacturing cells from crystal silicon with almost 22 % efficiency. Mehr...

---

Wind turbines learn how to swim

Large offshore wind parks in the North and Baltic Sea will produce hundreds of megawatt of energy in the near future and are, together with the onshore turbines, the basis of the energy revolution. The winds are stronger, more consistent and more predictable further away from the coast. However, common fixed-bottom offshore wind turbines are too expensive at high water depths. Scientists at the Stuttgart Chair of Wind Energy (SWE), University of Stuttgart now do research on floating offshore wind turbines that can be installed in water depths of more than 40 meters. Mehr...

---

Hidenori Takagi is new Alexander von Humboldt Professor

The solid-state physicist Hidenori Takagi from Japan, nominated by the University of Stuttgart together with the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research, has been selected as new Alexander von Humbold Professor. Takagi is regarded as an excellent researcher worldwide as well as being a researcher with an extensive international network for modern solid-state research and materials science. The German research prize, endowed with up to five million Euros, is being awarded by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and financed by the Federal Ministry for Education and Research. Mehr...

---

Greenpeace Study: University of Stuttgart investigates damage to health due to coal-fired power plants in Germany

Microscopically small fine dust particles from German coal-fired power plants annually cause around 33,000 years of life lost in Germany and Europe. These were the findings of a current study conducted by the University of Stuttgart on behalf of Greenpeace. The pollutants spread for thousands of kilometres throughout Europe. Mehr...
Image source: Paul Langrock/Zenit/Greenpeace

---