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Featured in Factory floor – 09-2026

Spacebound silicon

Solar has a long history in powering satellites and space exploration, and high-powered devices based on multijunction PV cells made from “III-V” materials such as gallium arsenide or indium gallium phosphide have supplied this niche market as far back as the 1960s. But those devices are made with rare materials and complex processing, limited to small batches produced at high cost.
Mark Hutchins
By
Mark Hutchins
Source supplies ‘space-ready’ PV modules based on silicon cells, and can also integrate them into rigid arrays and folding deployment structures. | Image: Source Energy

With excursions into space becoming more frequent, and the reasons behind them more commercial, the industry is exploring ways to generate electricity in space at lower cost and larger scale. And these requirements make ‘terrestrial’ silicon PV technology difficult to ignore. US-based company Source Energy combines commercial silicon cells with a range of module technologies …

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