Development of the ultra-light stretched lens array

Author

O´Neill, M.J. ; McDanal, A.J. ; George, P.J. ; Piszczor, M.F. ; Edwards, D.L. ; Hoppe, D.T. ; Eskenazi, M.I. ; Botke, M.M. ; Jester, P.A. ; Brandhorst, H.W.

Author_Institution

ENTECH, Inc., Keller, TX, USA

fYear

2002

fDate

19-24 May 2002

Firstpage

916

Lastpage

919

Abstract

At the last IEEE-PVSC, the new stretched lens array (SLA) concept was introduced. Since that conference, the SLA team has made significant advances in the SLA technology, including component-level improvements, array-level optimization, space environment exposure testing, and prototype hardware fabrication and evaluation. This paper will describe the evolved version of the SLA, highlighting the improvements in the lens, solar cell, rigid panel structure, and complete solar array wing. The near-term SLA will provide outstanding wing-level performance: >180 W/kg specific power, >300 W/sq.m. power density, >300 V operational voltage, and excellent durability in the space environment.

Keywords

lenses; optical arrays; solar cell arrays; solar energy concentrators; 300 V; refractive concentrator; rigid panel structure; solar array wing; solar cell; space photovoltaic array; stretched lens array; Conducting materials; Lenses; NASA; Optical materials; Photovoltaic cells; Plasmas; Shape; Space technology; Testing; Voltage;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, 2002. Conference Record of the Twenty-Ninth IEEE

ISSN

1060-8371

Print_ISBN

0-7803-7471-1

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/PVSC.2002.1190729

Filename

1190729