| Issue |
E3S Web Conf.
Volume 239, 2021
International Conference on Renewable Energy (ICREN 2020)
|
|
|---|---|---|
| Article Number | 00006 | |
| Number of page(s) | 16 | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/e3sconf/202123900006 | |
| Published online | 10 February 2021 | |
Solar Power Generation System for the Canadian Space Agency STRATOS Program
British Columbia Institute of Technology, ECET Department, Burnaby, BC V5G 3H2, Canada
This paper discusses the design and application of solar photovoltaics (PV) under aerospace conditions. The application of solar PV that is addressed is the Power Distribution Unit (PDU) for the Canadian Space Agency’s (CSA) stratospheric balloon (STRATOS) program. The PDU utilizes four 1 kWh Battery Unit (BUs) that have been sized with volume and weight restrictions in mind. Without the capacity to provide enough energy to support multi-day missions, they are thus supplemented by the solar power generation subsystem presented in this paper. The power generation sub-system includes a bespoke solar panel design and a centralized Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) power conversion unit to maximize the power output of solar panels. The centralized unit can accommodate up to eight solar panels, each consisting of nine individual C60 SunPower solar cells. The centralized MPPT unit consists of two MPPT controllers, each controller supporting up to four solar panels. The MPPT unit is modular and can be easily integrated to the CSA’s existing intelligent Battery Management System (BMS).
Key words: MPPT Controller / Solar Power Generation / STRATOS / Canadian Space Agency / Stratospheric Balloon / Aerospace
© The Authors, published by EDP Sciences, 2021
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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