[amsat-bb] HIgh efficiency solar cells for cubesats

[Joseph Armbruster]

Robert,

Not sure if you can disclose or not but were the ones you purchased
from Spectrolab?

Joseph Armbruster

On Wed, Aug 31, 2016 at 1:04 PM, Robert Bruninga <bruninga at usna.edu> wrote:
> We just bought some high efficiency solar cells for our cubesat at $500 per
> watt.
>
>
>
> For what it is worth, that is 1600 times more expensive than home solar
> panels now down to 30 cents a watt.  So I plotted it:
>
> http://aprs.org/Energy/solar/Cost-of-efficiency.png
>
>
>
> It is interesting that we hear so much about solar getting cheaper, but in
> fact, the high end only gets more expensive.  That is why those people who
> say “I’m waiting for higher efficiency” will never see it be cost
> effective.  The space industry will always pay much,much more for just a
> factor of two increase, whereas the homeowner will only ever pay the
> cheapest.  And cheap it is!
>
>
>
> Solar power is now cheaper than a custom glass window of the same size.
> The cost of the solar cells is only 10% of the typical home installation
> (recently seen as low as $2.70/watt contractor price in PA).
>
>
>
> Bob, WB4APR
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