RECENT PROGRESS TOWARDS SPACE APPLICATIONS OF THIN FILM SOLAR CELLS - THE GERMAN JOINT PROJECT ‘FLEXIBLE CIGSE THIN FILM SOLAR CELLS FOR SPACE FLIGHT’ AND OOV

摘要

A group of partners from an academic and industrialbackground are developing a flexible Cu(In,Ga)Se2(CIGSe) thin film solar cell technology on a polyimidesubstrate that aims to be a future alternative to currentrigid solar cell technologies for space applications. Inparticular on missions with high radiation volumes, thesuperior tolerance of chalcopyrite based thin film solarcell (TFSC) technologies with respect to electron andproton radiation, when compared to the established SiorIII-V based technologies, can be advantageous. Of allthin film technologies, those based on CIGSe have thehighest potential to reach attractive photovoltaicconversion efficiencies and combine these with lowweight in order to realize high power densities on solarcell and generator level. The use of a flexible substrateensures a high packing density. A working demonstratoris scheduled for flight this year.