The uninversity: Founded in 1743, the Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, FAU, has a rich history. It is a strong research university with an international perspective and one of the largest universities in Germany, with 39.780 students, 265 degree programmes, 4,000 academic staff (including over 579 professors), 177,6 million euros (2016) third-party funding, and 500 partnerships with universities all over the world.

Chair VI - Materials for Electronics and Energy Technology: Research at FAU‘s i-MEET is concentrated on electronic materials with relevance for energy related devices. Optoelectronic semiconductors for solar cells, lighting applications or high power circuits are in the focus of the currently 4 research groups at i-MEET.

The financing of photovoltaic infrastructure relies heavily on the exact prediction of the future income of solar parks. The income modeled in business plans is related to the yield and performance of the solar parks. There are two phases with distinct risks contributions: first the risk that the post-construction yield deviates from the predicted yield and secondly, the risk of durability and reliability of the yield over many years. There are several methods for determination of key performance indicators (KPIs) used in the market which partly allow to assign the responsibility to the stakeholders.
The task of the master thesis is to provide an overview of available KPIs for alignment of interest in EPC, supplier, O&M, or insurance contracts. The KPIs shall be assessed in terms of cost, repeatability, significance, and risk of dispute. Methods like FMEA can be used to rank scenarios and effects by importance. The final aim shall be a selection of technical methods to achieve a high level of commercial/contractual trust.
The student shall bring experience in technics or physics combined with commercial understanding, e.g. industrial engineer. Programming skills in phython, R studio (or similar) is a plus.

Co-funding can be available from Munich RE

Contact:

Dr. Christian Camus; Martensstraße 7, 91058 Erlangen; Christian.Camus@fau.de; www.i-meet.ww.uni-erlangen.de