EIGHT YEARS DATA ANALYSIS OF SOLAR CELL EXPERIMENT AT BRAZILIAN SECOND SATELLITE
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.59627/cbens.2008.1486Keywords:
Solar Cell, Solar Energy, Satellite, Radiation Damage, Photovoltaic EffectAbstract
The second Brazilian satellite (SCD2) was launched on October 23th, 1998 and hosts an experiment of silicon solar cells (ECS2). The main objective of this Experiment is to study the radiation damage on the silicon solar cells developed and manufactured in Brazil and, consequently, verify its feasibility as a space device. The ECS2 is a small solar modules composed by a single array of three pairs of silicon solar cells laid down on an aluminum mechanical structure. The three generated signal by the solar cells pairs are amplified by an electrical circuit located inside of the mechanical structure and transmitted by the telemetry of satellite to earth station in the city of Cuiabá-MS, Brazil. Each pair of solar cell works in three different situations, which are open circuit voltage, short circuit current and maximum electric power. A thermistor on the mechanical structure monitors the temperature of ECS. The four channels (three of signal and one of temperature) are received in real time and they allow recover the current curves for tension in the conditions standard of temperature and solar intensity (25°C and AM0). Therefore, the degradation of the electric parameters of the solar cell can be calculated during the life of the satellite. This work presents the analysis of the data received by the telemetry during the first eight years of SCD2 life. In this period, we can say that the suffered radiation damages for the solar cells provoked a decrease of 2.6% in the efficiency, 1.0% in the short circuit current and 1.7% in the open circuit voltage, relative to their begin of life values. These degradation values are smaller than the expected ones, as data presented in the literature. For instance, for the period of eight years and conditions of orbit of the satellite, a relative degradation of 7% was expected in the conversion efficiency and the data of the experiment revealed a smaller degradation than the half of the expected value (2.6%).
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