© HZB/Baip
Inolope Expo 2025
© HZB/Baip
© HZB/Baip
© HZB/Baip
We look back on 3 exciting days at the Inolope Expo 2025.
From February 12 to 14, 2025, the first Inolope Expo took place in Dortmund, a trade fair covering all aspects of innovative building envelopes. In addition to trade associations from the façade technology and green building sectors, various suppliers offered technical solutions for the façade design of today and tomorrow. An interesting program of specialist lectures, product presentations and panel discussions was offered on all three days at the dedicated trade fair forum.
The trade fair took place parallel to the established elektrotechnik, the trade fair for building, energy and industrial technology. The combination of the two trade fairs meant that there were many specialists who were particularly interested in the field of photovoltaics, as well as visitors who were explicitly interested in the building envelope, both in terms of design and function.
We from BAIP were represented with our own stand, which gave visitors a clear and practical insight into the possibilities of building-integrated photovoltaics. In particular, our 1:1 scale demonstrators of a solar façade and a roof section with solar roof tiles drew the attention of many interested visitors to us and our topics.
In over 360 stimulating conversations with the knowledgeable visitors, we were able to discuss the opportunities and challenges of building-integrated photovoltaics in depth, refute some prejudices and, above all, provide advice and information.
In close cooperation with the organizers of the trade fair and under the excellent moderation of Fabian Flade from the BIPV Alliance, we were able to provide various insights into topics such as building law and simulation of BIPV projects at the Inolope expert forum and present current results and experiences from our BIPV living laboratory / HZB. Together with Gunter Mann from the Bundesverband GebäudeGrün and Markus Schultz from the Verband für Fassadentechnik, we discussed “New Approaches” for the building envelope on a panel.
All in all, the first Inolope Expo was a great success for us at the BAIP. We were able to reach many interested people and also take away a few suggestions. We will certainly be continuing some of the discussions in the coming weeks.
- Bright prospects for tin perovskite solar cellsPerovskite solar cells are widely regarded as the next generation photovoltaic technology. However, they are not yet stable enough in the long term for widespread commercial use. One reason for this is migrating ions, which cause degradation of the semiconducting material over time. A team from HZB and the University of Potsdam has now investigated the ion density in four different, widely used perovskite compounds and discovered significant differences. Tin perovskite semiconductors produced with an alternative solvent had a particular low ion density — only one tenth that of lead perovskite semiconductors. This suggests that tin-based perovskites could be used to make solar cells that are not only really environmentally friendly but also very stable.
- Joint Kyiv Energy and Climate Lab goes liveHelmholtz-Zentrum Berlin and the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy established on 27 November a Joint Energy and Climate Lab.
- Long-term stability for perovskite solar cells: a big step forwardPerovskite solar cells are inexpensive to produce and generate a high amount of electric power per surface area. However, they are not yet stable enough, losing efficiency more rapidly than the silicon market standard. Now, an international team led by Prof. Dr. Antonio Abate has dramatically increased their stability by applying a novel coating to the interface between the surface of the perovskite and the top contact layer. This has even boosted efficiency to almost 27%, which represents the state-of-the-art. After 1,200 hours of continuous operation under standard illumination, no decrease in efficiency was observed. The study involved research teams from China, Italy, Switzerland and Germany and has been published in Nature Photonics.