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Did you know? All three facilities of Diotec headquarters in Germany are covered with photovoltaic modules, supplying a significant amount of "green" energy to our wafer, chip and device production. The worldwide Diotec plants will be equipped with PV panels within this year, the year of our 50th anniversary.

But do these PV panels work in winter as well? Yes, they do, and surprisingly often with higher energy output. The efficiency of PV panels is higher at low temperatures. So even when there is less sunlight during the day, it may happen that on sunny winter days more electricity is produced than on hot summer days. Not only heat can impact negatively on the performance of the panels. Also the sky is dustier and humid compared to a cold, fully bright winter day.

A disadvantage in winter is the higher risk for partial shading, due to the lower altitude of the sun, but also snow covering. It can lead to hotspots and thus damage on the modules. For that purpose every PV module is equipped with protective bypass diodes. They need to offer low forward voltage drop in bypass mode, and low reverse leakage in normal mode of operation. The SBX2540-3G combines both in an ideal way and is the perfect solar bypass diode. A great support of the green production of new semiconductor devices!