Tracking Da’ Blimp
Del,
I was told Lockheed isn’t ready to give out more details yet. My questions were simply total pv power needed for the airship? And would the project try to set the
airship up for aerial tracking of the sun’s transit?> no answers at this point. One clarification: Lockheed is working on the R&D/design for the prototype, not the prototype itself yet as I miswrote earlier, with final plans due in June 2005 (about 5-6 months after ECD’s latest AFRL contract concludes)
Since my last post I did find a description of a 2002 government solicitation for thin film PV for an airship that specified capacity of 500kW and called for 15-20% efficiency. acq.osd.mil
ECD hasn’t reported any efficiency that meets these goals but ECD’s high power density must be attractive to the Air Force because no competitive
thin film PV panel manufacturer geared for space has received anything beyond phase 1 funding, with the exception back in 2000 of Global Solar, and ECD is working now with phase 3 with vastly larger funding and on a “cost plus fixed fee" basis. See the sequential funding links below.
From descriptions of phase 1 funding my guess is that ECD’s phase 1 was no more than $100K, phase 2 $750K cost-sharing contract, phase 3 $11M cost plus fixed fee with additional $7.8M as option. I haven’t discovered any large recent funding to potential competitors.
Daystar(CIGs PV) and Iowa Thin Film Tech (two junction amorphous thin film on kapton) have touted their involvement with Lockheed’s airships and ECD/Unisolar has said nothing, but I think Daystar and IWFT’s lack of follow-on contracts vs. the recent and large contract for ECD augurs well. Another CIGs company working on PV for satellites is Global Solar but the last I heard was from July 2000 when Global Solar spoke of a gaining $3-$5M over the ensuing 3 years from their thin film PV (CIGs) contract involving Lockheed and Raytheon on the TecStar 21 satellite project. Maybe I've missed some more recent followup funding.
I sure would welcome anyone filling in any large dollar/recent thin film PV funding/grants/contracts for competitors, for space deployment, that I missed.
Al
I. nttc.edu
ENERGY CONVERSION DEVICES, INC.
AF 99-031 Title: Development of Ultralight, Thin-Film a-Si:H Based Solar Cells for Auxiliary Spacecraft Power Systems
Abstract: We propose to develop a novel, low-cost, amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) based modular to be integrated with a spacecraft thermal blanket for an auxiliary spacecraft power system. This new design is unique from ECD's present multi-junction module design in that an ultralight kapton substrate material and a monolithic cell interconnect design will be used which will allow for potential energy densities as high as 1000 W/kg. Small area (0.25 cm2) cells with this ultralight design have been fabricated with beginning-of-life AM0 efficiencies greater than 12%. Extensive tests have also demonstrated that the cell quality is resilient to electron and proton bombardment. In Phase I, we plan to scale-up the deposition process for 0.5 ft. x 0.5 ft. area cell fabrication. Deposition conditions will be optimized to achieve high cell performance and uniformity over large areas. Achievement of a highly reproducible process that produces 0.5 ft. x 0.5 ft. modules on kapton substrates with efficiencies greater than 8% will be achieved during the Phase I program. The process and module efficiencies will further be refined in Phase II of the program with the eventual goal of the implementation of the new module design and fabrication process into ECD's role-to role manufacturing line.
II. spacedaily.com
April 26, 2000 - Energy Conversion Devices, Inc. has been awarded a new $750,000 two-year cost-sharing contract by the U.S. Air Force to further advance its proprietary photovoltaic (PV) space technology.…This award is the result of a successful Phase I contract with the U.S. Air Force.
III. spacedaily.com
Auburn Hills May 26, 2003
United Solar Systems Corp based in Auburn Hills Mich has been awarded an $11,503,782 cost plus fixed fee contract for their program designed to advance the state-of-the-art of ultra lightweight, high efficiency, and flexible thin film solar cell technology for the emerging space and airship markets.…This work will be complete February 2005
And from the Detroit Free Press 5/30/03
Auburn Hills -- The military has turned to United Solar Systems Corp. for the development of the next generation of solar panels that could be used to power both space airships and satellites. The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory in Kirtland, N.M., has awarded an $11.5 million, 18-month contract to fund research on ultra-lightweight photovoltaic cells that produce electricity from sunlight. The Air Force has a $7.8 million option for additional research. The company is already working on a three-year contract with the Air Force worth $1.2 million. |
