Klemens Ilse joins the management team at Fraunhofer CSP

Founded in 2007, Fraunhofer CSP in Halle (Saale) is a joint institution of the Fraunhofer Institute for Microstructure of Materials and Systems IMWS and the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE. It supports its clients in bringing renewable energies to market in a reliable, sustainable, and economical manner.

The department belonging to Fraunhofer ISE has been headed by Dr. Frank Zobel since January 2025, focusing on materials manufacturing, solar cell and module development, and characterization. Fraunhofer IMWS contributes expertise in microstructure diagnostics for the evaluation and optimization of materials, process technologies, and product concepts. The corresponding department, which is also a business unit of Fraunhofer IMWS, has been headed by Prof. Dr. Ralph Gottschalg since 2018. Dr. Klemens Ilse is now co-heading this department.

"The photovoltaics business unit is the largest at our institute in terms of personnel. In addition, we face the particular challenge of adapting our application-oriented research and development services to the needs of a highly dynamic market so that they remain valuable to our customers in the long term. We are now creating the necessary capacity for these diverse management tasks," says PD Dr. Christian Schmelzer, acting director of Fraunhofer IMWS, about the new dual leadership in the business unit. "I would like to thank Klemens Ilse for his willingness to take on additional management position and Ralph Gottschalg for his willingness to share responsibility."

"I am very much looking forward to the new task and the opportunity to lead Fraunhofer CSP into the future together with all my colleagues," says Ilse, who has been with Fraunhofer CSP since 2010. "With the agreed division of tasks, we will achieve more efficient processes and increased exchange, which will also benefit our clients."

"I am very much looking forward to working together. The new management constellation brings valuable additional input and also shows that we will be focusing on materials innovation in the wider context of the energy system, not PV alone. We can now act in a more targeted manner in the strategic development process that has just begun, which will bring enormous advantages for Fraunhofer CSP," says Gottschalg, who will remain Professor of Photovoltaic Energy Systems at Anhalt University of Applied Sciences in Köthen while heading Fraunhofer CSP.

More than 90 employees at Fraunhofer CSP develop new technologies, manufacturing processes, and product concepts along the entire photovoltaic value chain. The range of services extends from silicon crystallization and wafer production to solar cell characterization and module technology to the use of digital tools in photovoltaics and integration into the energy system. In addition, pilot lines on an industrial scale are available. The research institution has internationally recognized expertise, particularly in the reliability assessment of solar cells and modules under laboratory and operating conditions, as well as in the electrical, optical, mechanical, and microstructural characterization of materials and components. Its services also include the development and optimization of measurement methods, devices, and manufacturing processes for components and materials with increased reliability.

(October 1, 2025)