High-efficiency solar batteries used by satellites

Usually, the typical solar battery used in households (used with Solar Photovoltaic Generator Instruction Materials) are made up of silicon.

These batteries have around 10% conversion efficiency – which refers to the percentage of electric energy converted, relative to the original amount of solar energy given to solar batteries.

At first, satellites were given simple jobs and thus, it was not much of a problem to use these household silicon batteries, which are generally non-efficient.

However, as technologies developed, high-quality spacecraft payload systems were developed, the system required more electricity to keep running.

In order to produce this electricity, the corresponding sizes of the solar panels increased in size, and the overall mass of the satellites grew responsively.

 Hence, the satellites required space launch systems with stronger   impellent forces, which directly related to the increase of the cost in the process of launching.

On top of that, the inner space of the paring in which the satellites were loaded was quite limited, so it was impossible to insist on bigger, heavier solar panels.

At the end, it became essential to generate a large amount of electricity using a small base area – and people began to understand the significance of highly efficient solar batteries.

In the 1970s, solar panels were no longer built by silicon but GaAs (Gallium Arsenide) was used as a key material in the process.

Still, Gallium arsenide was far more expensive than the original raw materials, and the higher cost cancelled out with the higher efficiency. 10 years later, researchers developed a number of different solar panels using numerous compounds to increase the efficiency of Gallium arsenide panels.

They were able to develop a multi-junction solar panel that drastically increased the efficiency to Gallium arsenide (from 20% to over 30%). This model is being used today in satellites all across the world.

What if we can bring the energy collected from satellites to Earth?

Since 1979, NASA and the American energy department devised a plan to utilize space solar power.

The idea behind this is to install a solar panel on the geostationary orbit and use microwaves to send the electricity to Earth through wireless antennas.

The American government was planning to generate electricity that can be created by 5 atomic power plants through this project, but was unable to carry on due to financial problems in the early 1980s.

Research centers around the world are, however, still studying the topic to launch the plan. There would be, of course, a couple of problems related to space solar power plants, and especially financial problems that cannot be solved on a short-term basis.

Someday though, when these power plants are built, we may be able to use solar energy without any limits. This would lead to the conservation of the environment through the widespread usage of eco-friendly energy generators.

A new system, if only given the financial support based on continuous experiments, would certainly bring the end to fossil fuels and the opening of a new world.

The direct generation of free solar energy would open the curtains to the new world we dream of – of solar cars and zero energy houses everywhere among us.

picture source: navercast