A record year for our living lab for BIPV
© BAIP/HZB
In 2025, our solar facade in Berlin-Adlershof generated more electricity than in any of the previous four years of operation.
With about 32 MWh, the solar facade of our BIPV living laboratory produced enough electricity to power more than 12 average four-person households. Thanks to the energy-intensive research landscape at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin, we can also consume all of the electricity generated on site at any time.
Even after five years of operation, our building-integrated solar modules show no measurable degradation. Differences in annual energy yield can so far be attributed exclusively to weather-related fluctuations. According to the German Weather Service, the duration of sunshine in 2025 was around 1,900 hours nationwide. In addition, the year was comparatively low in precipitation, which, together with the high duration of sunshine, explains the high solar yield.
However, we were particularly surprised by December: exceptionally good PV weather led to yields more than twice as high as in the previous year! Especially in spring, autumn and winter, the sun is more favourable for the solar facade, so we regularly observe higher yield peaks than in the summer months.
We are excited to see how this year will turn out.
- Compact electron accelerator for treating PFAS-contaminated waterSo-called forever chemicals or PFAS compounds are a growing environmental problem. An innovative approach to treating PFAS-contaminated water and soil now comes from accelerator physics: high-energy electrons can break down PFAS molecules into harmless components through a process called radiolysis. A recent study published in PLOS One shows that an accelerator developed at HZB, based on a SRF photoinjector, can provide the necessary electron beam.
- The BIPV living lab at the centre of an international comparative studyThe BIPV living lab at HZB in Berlin-Adlershof is at the centre of an international comparative study for the simulation of coloured solar façades.
- The twisted nanotubes that tell a storyIn collaboration with scientists in Germany, EPFL researchers have demonstrated that the spiral geometry of tiny, twisted magnetic tubes can be leveraged to transmit data based on quasiparticles called magnons, rather than electrons.