Adolf Goetzberger, the founding father of the Fraunhofer Institute for Photo voltaic Power Methods ISE and an early proponent of photovoltaics, died on February 24 on the age of 94.
From pv journal Germany
Adolf Goetzberger, who died on February 24 on the age of 94, was an necessary determine within the historical past of German photo voltaic analysis. Goetzberger, an experimental physicist and honorary professor on the School of Physics on the College of Freiburg, based the Fraunhofer Institute for Photo voltaic Power Methods ISE in 1981. In the identical 12 months, he developed the thought of agrivoltaics in cooperation with Armin Zastrow.
Goetzberger got here to america after finishing his doctorate in 1955 on the crystallization of vapor-deposited antimony layers. After working with Nobel Prize winner William Shockley, he returned to Germany in 1968 and took over the administration of the Fraunhofer Institute for Utilized Stable State Physics IAF. In 1971, he was appointed honorary professor on the School of Physics on the College of Freiburg.
In 1981, he based a working group on the Fraunhofer IAF to type the impartial Fraunhofer Institute for Photo voltaic Power Methods ISE, which he led till 1993.
“I used to be capable of persuade the previous president of the Fraunhofer Society, however his advisers mentioned that photo voltaic vitality was not sensible,” mentioned Goetzberger on his eightieth birthday. In the identical 12 months, he revealed an article with Zastrow in photo voltaic vitality journal, “Potatoes underneath the collector,” to elucidate the thought of agrovoltaics.
Goetzberger holds greater than 30 patents and is the president of Deutsche Gesellschaft für Sonnenenergie eV (DGS). His contributions to photo voltaic vitality have been acknowledged in some ways. In 1983, for instance, he was the primary German to obtain the JJ Ebers Award from the US-based IEEE Electron Gadgets Society for the event of the silicon discipline impact transistor. And in 2009, he was given a Lifetime Achievement award by the European Patent Workplace.
“We bow to the life work of Adolf Goetzberger and are grateful to him for his providers within the growth of photo voltaic vitality techniques and thus his nice contribution to a world vitality transition,” mentioned Hans-Martin Henning, one of many two present administrators of Fraunhofer ISE .
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