Ian Marius Peters

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• Doctor of Philosophy
• Head Sustainable PV at Forschungszentrum Jülich

This study investigates the disparities in the deployment of photovoltaic (PV) technology for carbon emissions reduction across different nations, highlighting the mismatch between countries with high economic capacity and those where PV installation would maximize global decarbonization benefits. This mismatch is discussed based on three key facto...

Lightweight photovoltaic applications are essential for diversifying the solar energy supply. This opens up vast new scenarios for solar modules and significantly boosts the capacity of renewable energy. To ensure high efficiency and stability of the solar modules, several challenges need to be overcome. Degradation due to elevated temperature and/...

UV fluorescence imaging (UVF) has the potential to grow into a powerful, informative, and economically attractive inspection method for photovoltaic (PV) power stations. UVF demonstrates the ability to indicate differences in polymer types and degradation states in backsheets and encapsulation materials of PV modules. The data acquisition rate of U...

Each day, the Sun’s rays strike Earth’s continents with four times more energy than humanity consumes in an entire year. Therefore, such enormous solar energy potential underscores the urgent need to replace conventional and unsustainable fossil fuel consumption, given its damaging impact on our climate and environment. Efforts to harness this clea...

This study presents a phenomenon in photovoltaic field installations we call voltage ear. PV installations exhibit the voltage ear under specific conditions where modules generate more power than the inverter can handle. When inverters exceed their power limit it results in inverter clipping, and the solar modules are regulated to operate at a volt...

Closed-loop recycling is crucial in the rapidly expanding era of photovoltaic deployment. Yet, the recycling of commercial silicon photovoltaic modules presents challenges due to laborious component separation. In contrast, layers in solution-processed solar cells can be separated with relative ease through selective dissolution. In this study, we...

Globally, 1.6 billion people in rural regions face water scarcity. Expanding freshwater access via brackish groundwater desalination can provide additional resources to address this challenge. In this study, we have developed a time-variant electrodialysis reversal (EDR) technology that flexibly uses available solar energy for desalination. Our pro...

Hardware-based startups risk having longer times-to-market, deterring investment in the clean technologies that are critical to a sustainable future. We interviewed 55 leaders at hardware startups, 20 of which are cleantech, mapped their development timelines, and found prototyping to be the longest development step (median of 19 weeks per prototyp...

The degradation status of polymer encapsulants in photovoltaic (PV) modules with backsheets of various compositions is evaluated by near‐infrared absorption (NIRA) spectroscopy. The method is used to identify backsheet types and to assess the content of carbonyl species in the ethylene vinyl acetate copolymer encapsulant expressed as a carbonyl ind...

Multijunction devices and photon up‐ and down conversion are prominent concepts aimed at increasing photovoltaic efficiencies beyond the single junction limit. Integrating these concepts into advanced architectures may address long‐standing issues such as processing complexity, microstructure control and resilience against spectral changes of the i...

This case study highlights the potential of UV fluorescence imaging as an emerging photovoltaic (PV) module inspection tool allowing the cost and time of the field inspection to be considerably reduced and opening a gateway to high-throughput operation. The application of UV fluorescence imaging is advanced beyond its reported capabilities by combi...

In article number 2302594, Jiyun Zhang, Yicheng Zhao, Christoph J. Brabec and co-workers develop a machine-learning-guided automated platform, the SPINBOT, to optimize solution-processed perovskite thin films. The platform efficiently explores an intricate multi-dimensional parameter space to produce high-quality and reproducible films. As a result...

Simultaneously optimizing the processing parameters of functional thin films remains a challenge. The design and utilization of a fully automated platform called SPINBOT is presented for the engineering of solution‐processed functional thin films. The SPINBOT is capable of performing experiments with high sampling variability through the unsupervis...

The 2019–20 Australian wildfires caused extreme haze events across New South Wales (NSW), which reduced photovoltaic (PV) power output. We analyze 30-min energy data from 160 geographically separated residential PV systems in NSW with a total capacity of 312 kW from 6 Nov 2019–15 Jan 2020. The observed mean power reduction rate for PV energy genera...

Polymer components, in particular, backsheets (BSs) and ethylene‐vinyl acetate (EVA) encapsulants, play a crucial role in the degradation of commercial silicon photovoltaic (PV) modules. Degradation mechanisms depend in a complex way on the composition and properties of all involved polymers. In this study, we demonstrate that differences in the co...

Introducing large organic cations to form reduced-dimensional (quasi-2D) perovskites has proven to be effective in stabilizing three-dimensional perovskites. In this study, we synthesized 28 Ruddlesden–Popper-type quasi-2D perovskites using four aromatic-based cations (phenylmethylammonium (PMA), phenethylammonium (PEA), phenylpropylammonium (PPA),...

Cradle-to-cradle recycling plays an important role in resolving one of the major upcoming challenges for photovoltaics in the energy transition-resource management. As photovoltaic production continues to grow, it absorbs a vast amount of resources. Cradle-to-cradle recycling is essential to keep these resources available perpetually and minimize w...

In single-junction photovoltaic (PV) devices, the maximum achievable power conversion efficiency (PCE) is mainly limited by thermalization and transmission losses, because polychromatic solar irradiation cannot be matched to a single bandgap. Several concepts are being investigated to reduce these losses, such as the classical vertical multijunctio...

The recent successes of emerging photovoltaics (PV) such as organic and perovskite solar cells are largely driven by innovations in material science. However, closing the gap to commercialization still requires significant innovation to match contradicting requirements such as performance, longevity and recyclability. The rate of innovation, as of...

Multijunction solar cells offer a path to very high conversion efficiency, exceeding 60% in theory. Under ideal conditions, efficiency increases monotonically with the number of junctions. In this study, we explore technical and economic mechanisms acting on tandem solar cells. We find that these mechanisms produce limitations that are the more pro...

On‐site imaging of modules in photovoltaic (PV) systems requires contact‐free techniques with high throughput and low cost for commercial relevance. Photoluminescence imaging satisfies these requirements, but it has so far not been used for aerial imaging. Such a system faces unique engineering and operating challenges, including the need to mount...

A major renewable-energy milestone occurred in 2022: Photovoltaics (PV) exceeded a global installed capacity of 1 TW dc. But despite considerable growth and cost reduction over time, PV is still a small part of global electricity generation (4 to 5% for 2022), and the window is increasingly closing to take action at scale to cut greenhouse gas (GHG...

Feasibility of the identification of backsheet (BS) composition of field-aged Si PV modules based on the analysis of characteristic patterns of UV-excited fluorescence (UVF) of ethylene vinyl acetate copolymer encapsulant is shown. The approach includes BS identification by vibrational spectroscopies and the formation of a database of BS-related ch...

This study is motivated by the desire to produce a low-cost, high-precision, high-throughput environmental chamber to test materials and devices under elevated humidity, temperature, and light. This paper documents the creation of an open-source tool with a bill of materials as low as US$2,000, and the subsequent evolution of three second-generatio...

There are over 1.6 billion people living in rural, water-stressed areas across the world. Brackish groundwater desalination can expand these stressed freshwater supplies. Compared to conventional reverse osmosis (RO), electrodialysis reversal (EDR) can reduce water wastage and energy consumption in brackish water desalination. The improved energy e...

Recent studies show that the choice of backsheets and encapsulants can be essential for the operational readiness of inverters, which affects system revenue. A key module property determined by the backsheet is ground impedance, which needs to exceed a threshold value or the inverter fails to connect to the grid—it trips. We studied the impact of d...

We report the design and utilization of a fully automated platform called SPINBOT for the engineering of solution-processed functional thin films. The SPINBOT is capable of performing experiments with high sampling variability through the unsupervised processing of hundreds of substrates with exceptional experimental control. We demonstrate the uni...

This paper compares performance data of two installed PV systems with the same type of multicrystalline, p-type silicon PV module in two different climatic and installation conditions. The analysis was carried out on a 17.64kWp portion of a roof-top PV plant installed in 2013 in the Lisbon area, in Portugal (38.7°N; 9.3°W) and on a ground mounted 2...

Multijunction solar cells offer a path to very high conversion efficiency, exceeding 60% in theory. Under ideal conditions, efficiency increases monotonically with the number of junctions. In this study, we explore technical and economic mechanisms acting on tandem solar cells. We find that these mechanisms produce limitations that are the more pro...

In this study, we introduce a weather data independent self‐referencing algorithm for performance analyses of PV power stations based on monitoring data. We introduce this method as an alternative to standard performance ratio analyses, in the case that no meteorological data are available. The self‐referencing algorithm utilizes the string with ma...

Polymers are essential for long-term green energy production by photovoltaics (PV). We created a unique dataset that links electrical performance data of 28,030 PV modules, combined into 1295 strings and 423 inverters with the identity of the backsheet (BS) materials of each of the tested modules. This dataset gives an insight into BS-versatility a...

This study is motivated by the desire to disseminate a low-cost, high-precision, high-throughput environmental chamber to test materials and devices under elevated humidity, temperature, and light. This paper documents the creation of an open-source tool with a bill of materials as low as US$2,000, and the subsequent evolution of three second-gener...

Thermography is a frequently used and appreciated method to detect underperforming Photovoltaic modules in solar power stations. With the review, we give insights on two aspects: (a) are the developed measurement strategies highly efficient (about 1 module s⁻¹) to derive timely answers from the images for operators of multi-Mega Warr peak power sta...

This study is motivated by the desire to disseminate a low-cost, high-precision, high-throughput environmental chamber to test materials and devices under elevated humidity, temperature, and light. This paper documents the creation of an open-source tool with a bill of materials as low as US$2,000, and the subsequent evolution of three second-gener...

Herein, we present results that emphasize the importance of retaining high insulation resistance in polymer backsheets for the reliable operation of photovoltaic installations. By correlating inverter monitoring data, meteorological data, and spectroscopic information from backsheet materials of photovoltaic modules, we derive performance and degra...

The role of innovation for the success of photovoltaics cannot be overstated. Photovoltaics have enjoyed the most substantial price learning of any energy technology. Innovation affects photovoltaic performance in more ways, though. Here, we explore the role of innovation for economics and greenhouse gas savings of photovoltaic modules using replac...

We present here a degradation study of a PV power plant consisting of several module pairs connecting each to a micro-inverter with monitoring. The modules comprise cell cracks, cell breakages and edge shunting. The impact of using different methodologies on the resulting relative yield loss rates is analyzed. It is demonstrated how these methods c...

Hardware-based startups risk having longer times-to-market, deterring investment in critical fields such as cleantech, medical devices, and automation. We interviewed 55 leaders at hardware startups, mapped their development timelines, and found prototyping to be the longest development step (median of 19 weeks per prototype) regardless of prototyp...

Billions of everyday objects could become part of the Internet of Things (IoT) by augmentation with low-cost, long-range, maintenance-free wireless sensors. Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is a low-cost wireless technology that could enable this vision, but it is constrained by short communication range and lack of sufficient energy available...

In den letzten Jahren häufen sich Meldungen über Probleme bei Polymerfolien in PV Modulen. Die Ursachen hierfür sind oftmals nicht ersichtlich können aus in unangemessenen Materialien, Qualitätsschwankungen in der Folienproduktion oder Prozessschwankungen in der Modulfertigung begründet sein. Um derartige Probleme in der Zukunft zu minimieren, beda...

Eine schnelle Degradation von Rückseitenfolien (BS=Backsheet) bereitet vielen Investoren und Solarparkbetreibern Sorge [1, 2]. Degradierte BSs erfüllen nicht mehr ihre wichtigen Aufgaben: die elektrische Isolation der Stromkreisläufe, Schutz vor UV-Strahlung, Feuchtigkeit, mechanischer Beschädigung und Abrasion, außerdem vor dem Einfluss chemischer...

Photovoltaic installations will likely become one of the major power sources in the 21st century and we need photovoltaic modules to operate reliably. In this review, we explore what is known today about the status of installed crystalline silicon photovoltaic modules in the world, how different sources classify module defects, and what we might de...

To identify abnormal photovoltaic (PV) modules in large‐scale PV plants economically, drone‐mounted infrared (IR) cameras and automated video processing algorithms are frequently used. While most related works focus on the detection of abnormal modules, little has been done to automatically localize those modules within the plant. In this work, we...

To identify abnormal photovoltaic (PV) modules in large-scale PV plants economically, drone-mounted infrared (IR) cameras and automated video processing algorithms are frequently used. While most related works focus on the detection of abnormal modules, little has been done to automatically localize those modules within the plant. In this work, we...

The ability to forecast solar irradiance plays an indispensable role in solar power forecasting, which constitutes an essential step in planning and operating power systems under high penetration of solar power generation. Since solar radiation is an atmospheric process, solar irradiance forecasting, and thus solar power forecasting, can benefit fr...

Increasing deployment of photovoltaic (PV) plants requires methods for automatic detection of faulty PV modules in modalities, such as infrared (IR) images. Recently, deep learning has become popular for this. However, related works typically sample train and test data from the same distribution ignoring the presence of domain shift between data of...

Increasing deployment of photovoltaic (PV) plants requires methods for automatic detection of faulty PV modules in modalities, such as infrared (IR) images. Recently, deep learning has become popular for this. However, related works typically sample train and test data from the same distribution ignoring the presence of domain shift between data of...

Energy losses of photovoltaic (PV) plants because of soiling are a problem in all regions, including Germany. Soft soiling, caused by a uniform dust film, is shading a PV module and is reducing yield depending on the thickness of the debris layer. Hard soiling, caused by agglomerations of dust or dirt, only covers parts of a PV module, and it cause...

Degradation of backsheets (BSs) of commercial silicon PV modules is currently recognized as a source of reduced module performance and module failure. Monitoring of the BS state in the field is possible by using non‐destructive and highly informative near‐infrared absorption (NIRA) spectroscopy. Application of NIRA for the analysis of multi‐layer p...

Floating photovoltaic systems are an attractive, emerging concept to extend the area available for solar energy production to the water. Among the advantages of floating PV, frequently a cooling effect is mentioned. Yet little to no quantitative information about this cooling is provided in available literature. In this study, we present observatio...

Warranties for photovoltaic modules last 25 years. The same duration is frequently used when predicting economic performance. Yet, many modules still produce more than 80% of their original power after 25 years, and there is no economic reason to retire them. Here, we adopt a different mindset: photovoltaic installations are operated indefinitely w...

Degradation of backsheets (BSs) and encapsulant polymer components of silicon PV modules is recognized as one of the main reasons for losses in PV plant performance and lifetime expectations. Here, we report initial insights into the correlation between BS composition of PV-modules and PV power station performance by using a combination of lab- and...

Over the last years, a significant number of inverter shutdowns most likely due to degraded backsheets have been reported by operators, investors, and manufacturers. We investigated water ingress into different backsheets, and the resulting risk for inverter shutdowns. For studying pending insulation issues of inverters, we analyzed exemplarily a 5...

Reliable and durable solar power plants require PV modules with high-grade polymer encapsulants and backsheets (BSs). For performance analyses of PV installations fast, reliable and non-destructive methods for determining composition and degradation state of polymer components need to be developed. Here, we show that the structure of some common po...

The individual causes for power loss of photovoltaic modules are investigated for quite some time. Recently, it has been shown that the power loss of a module is, for example, related to the fraction of inactive areas. While these areas can be easily identified from electroluminescense (EL) images, this is much harder for photoluminescence (PL) ima...

Cost-effective, fast, and nondestructive on-site characterization of photovoltaic plants is required to determine countermeasures against power loss, defects, or safety problems. Methods with small impact on the operation and a high throughput, such as infrared thermography (IR), or methods with high resolution for detailed defect information, such...

Increasing deployment of photovoltaics (PV) plants demands for cheap and fast inspection. A viable tool for this task is thermographic imaging by unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). In this work, we develop a computer vision tool for the semi‐automatic extraction of PV modules from thermographic UAV videos. We use it to curate a dataset containing 4.3...

Increasing deployment of photovoltaics (PV) plants demands for cheap and fast inspection. A viable tool for this task is thermographic imaging by unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). In this work, we develop a computer vision tool for the semi-automatic extraction of PV modules from thermographic UAV videos. We use it to curate a dataset containing 4.3...

Wide bandgap mixed halide perovskites ABX3, in which X can be I, Br, or Cl, are promising materials to form highly efficient optoelectronic devices, because the optical bandgap can be controlled over a wide range by variation of the halogen composition. However, significant nonradiative losses must be overcome to approach the efficiency limit of si...

Degradation of backsheets (BS) and encapsulant polymer components of silicon PV modules is recognized as one of the main reasons for losses in PV plant performance and lifetime expectations. Here, we report first insights into the correlation between BS composition of PV-modules and PV power station performance by using a combination of lab- and fi...

Visual inspection of solar modules is an important monitoring facility in photovoltaic power plants. Since a single measurement of fast CMOS sensors is limited in spatial resolution and often not sufficient to reliably detect small defects, we apply multiframe superresolution (MFSR) to a sequence of low-resolution measurements. In addition, the rec...

In field operation, solar cells are exposed to constantly changing operating conditions. These changing conditions have an impact on energy yield. Present-day yield predictions mostly use linear correction coefficients derived from lab experiments. These corrections neglect interactions between meteorological parameters like temperature and humidit...

What role have batteries to play in the transition toward terawatt levels of photovoltaics? In this perspective, we attempt to answer this question by looking at technical, economic, and ecological features of PV-battery systems. We argue that the window of opportunity for batteries lies in the capacities of a few kWh/kWP, the exact amount dependin...

Automated inspection plays an important role in monitoring large‐scale photovoltaic power plants. Commonly, electroluminescense measurements are used to identify various types of defects on solar modules, but have not been used to determine the power of a module. However, knowledge of the power at maximum power point is important as well, since dro...

Thanks to fast learning and sustained growth, solar photovoltaics (PV) is today a highly cost-competitive technology, ready to contribute substantially to CO 2 emissions mitigation. However, many scenarios assessing global decarbonization pathways, either based on integrated assessment models or partial-equilibrium models, fail to identify the key...

Search for resource-efficient materials in vast compositional spaces is an outstanding challenge in creating environmentally stable perovskite semiconductors. We demonstrate a physics-constrained sequential learning framework to subsequently identify the most stable alloyed organic-inorganic perovskites. We fuse data from high-throughput degradatio...

Correction for ‘Revisiting thin silicon for photovoltaics: a technoeconomic perspective’ by Zhe Liu et al. , Energy Environ. Sci. , 2020, 13 , 12–23, DOI: 10.1039/C9EE02452B.

Spectral differences affect solar cell performance, an effect that is especially visible when comparing different solar cell technologies. To reproduce the impact of varying spectra on solar cell performance in the lab, a unique classification of spectra is needed, which is currently missing in literature. The most commonly used classification, ave...

Process optimization of photovoltaic devices is a time-intensive, trial-and-error endeavor, which lacks full transparency of the underlying physics and relies on user-imposed constraints that may or may not lead to a global optimum. Herein, we demonstrate that embedding physics domain knowledge into a Bayesian network enables an optimization approa...

Visual inspection of solar modules is an important monitoring facility in photovoltaic power plants. Since a single measurement of fast CMOS sensors is limited in spatial resolution and often not sufficient to reliably detect small defects, we apply multi-frame super-resolution (MFSR) to a sequence of low resolution measurements. In addition, the r...

Electrodialysis (ED) desalination has been demonstrated to be more energy-efficient, provide higher-recovery, and be lower-cost for producing drinking water from saline groundwater compared to reverse osmosis. These benefits of ED could translate into cost-effective, renewable-powered desalination solutions. However, the challenge of using a variab...

Automated inspection plays an important role in monitoring large-scale photovoltaic power plants. Commonly, electroluminescense measurements are used to identify various types of defects on solar modules but have not been used to determine the power of a module. However, knowledge of the power at maximum power point is important as well, since drop...

Electroluminescence images have been used to qualify the performance of PV modules. Yet, to assess the status and techno-economic performance of a module in a string, quantitative information is required. In this work, we propose a method to predict PV module IV curves from electroluminescence images using a deep learning algorithm. The proposed me...

Cost-effective tools for on-site defect detection help to ensure the reliable power production of photovoltaic (PV) plants. On-site examination is essential to minimize PV module damage, electrical yield loss and operation disruption caused by additional transport to the laboratory (off-site examination) or disruption of the electrical circuits. Ou...