Thomas E. Hoffmeister, Managing Director of FPE Fischer GmbH, talks about his company’s first foray into the renewable energy industry, reinvigorating the organisation and the launch of an innovative new product…
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PES: Can you explain a little about your company and what you offer the renewable energy industry?
Thomas Hoffmeister: FPE Fischer GmbH has been in business for 30 years. During this time we have been involved with trading electronic and computer components, but in recent years we have specialised in developing cooling solutions for the computer industry, using different materials and technologies. We are especially proud of our liquid cooling systems for CPUs and graphic cards. Furthermore, we are also working on solutions using metal foams.
We began noticing in the news, that an increasing number of cases stared to appear last year of damaged and burned solar panels, to the extent that roofs started to get damaged and that further catastrophes were only just becoming averted. There was a clear problem: overheating of junction boxes, the consequent failure of the diodes and the resulting fire hazards. So we drew from our experience in heat management and applied it in a classical way knowledge-transfer. The result is our new Aluminium Junction Box, which manages to integrate two normally opposite processes: heat dissipation and electrical insulation.
How much does the sector contribute to your overall business, and can you see it making up for a larger share in the future?
