Dr. Hacke performs research and consulting for durability testing, validation, and failure analysis of photovoltaic (PV) modules, inspections for root cause of module failures in the field, and accelerated lifetime testing, including for potential induced degradation (PID), power loss, corrosion, bypass diodes, and delamination.

His research interests are in modeling of degradation processes of PV modules, module integrated electronics/small inverters, relating accelerated test results to field tests, and developing new methods for analysis of PV degradation data. He also explores accelerated multi-stress and combined stress testing to better predict occurrences of failure modes seen in the field.

Dr. Hacke pioneered methods for in-situ monitoring of degradation of PV modules in environmental chambers using dark I-V curve analysis, enabling more frequent data-taking at lower cost and improved degradation statistics. With these advances, he developed accelerated degradation models for PID.

Participating in International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) TC 82 WG2, he is the project leader on IEC 62804-1 and IEC 62804-2, PID test methods for crystalline silicon and thin-film PV modules, respectively; and for IEC 60904-12 and IEC 60904-13, infrared thermography and electroluminescence imaging for PV modules, respectively. He also writes for numerous other IEC standards for safety and durability of PV modules and PV inverters.

Dr. Hacke received his bachelor's degree in engineering from Steven Institute of Technology, a doctoral degree from North Carolina State University with a thesis on deformation modeling of solder joints in electronic packaging undergoing thermomechanical fatigue, and a master's degree in business administration from the University of New Mexico. He joined NREL in 2009. He has more than 15 years of industrial and research photovoltaic experience, and more broadly, 23 years of work in the fabrication and characterization of optoelectronic materials, including development of sol-gel spin-on diffusion sources, modeling of satellite-mounted PV cell degradation, gallium nitride (GaN) growth (molecular beam epitaxy [MBE] and metal–organic chemical vapor deposition [MOCVD]) and characterization by transient capacitance methods, X-ray diffraction, and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) for light-emitting diode (LED) and laser diode structures, conventional and back contact silicon PV cells, and module integration technologies.

Dr. Hacke has also performed cost analyses for photovoltaic processes and products.

He speaks English, French, and Japanese.

He has received an R&D 100 award in the project team for TetraSun's high-efficiency, cost-effective mono-crystalline solar cells.