This week, Hanergy just announced that its American subsidiary Alta Devices' single-junction gallium arsenide battery broke the world record. On November 14th, it adopted Hanergy Alta's world-leading flexible gallium arsenide thin film battery. Boeing Aurora, a subsidiary of Aurora, designed a solar unmanned aerial vehicle "Odysseus" with a wingspan of 243 feet (74 meters).
Odysseus can continue to fly effectively by relying solely on the sun. After the test is completed, the aircraft will be shipped to Puerto Rico in late February 2019 to begin flight testing. It is understood that the second aircraft of the same type is under construction and the third has also been launched.
Tom Clancy, chief technology officer of Aurora and vice president of drone systems, said integrating solar cells into the structure of the aircraft provided a relatively high power-to-weight ratio. The plane is covered with solar cells on the upper surface of the wing, the edges of the tail and the vertical tail. The gallium arsenide flexible battery array provided by Hanergy Alta was integrated with the composite surface plate to reduce weight and improve durability.
According to reports, Odysseus' global operating area also exceeds other similar products, it can carry a larger payload than any other aircraft of its kind (in development and production), and only costs a small part of the cost of satellites. Odysseus is also highly adaptable and reconfigurable, which means it can continue to be repositioned and reprogrammed according to mission requirements and even technological advancements. It is also ideal for climate and weather researchers who are dedicated to measuring key but complex environmental degradation factors, including vegetation, ice cover, and even ground moisture.
Hanergy, which delivered gallium arsenide thin-film batteries for Boeing's solar drones, broke the world record for gallium arsenide battery conversion rates twice a year and is leading the tide of global solar industry upgrades.
Recently, Hanergy GaAs has made another major breakthrough. According to the Fraunhofer ISE (Germany), one of the world's three largest renewable energy research institutions, Hanergy Alta's gallium arsenide thin-film single-junction cell conversion efficiency reached 29.1%, setting a new world record again. It is understood that the world record for single-junction cell conversion efficiency was broken by Alta in 2010, and was refreshed by Alta six times in a row, the most recent being 28.9% that Alta created in the first half of 2018. So far, in the field of gallium arsenide batteries, Hanergy has maintained a number of global leading levels such as dual-junction batteries (31.6%), single-junction batteries (29.1%), and mass-production module (25.1%) conversion rates, further establishing its efficiency in Absolute leading position in the field of solar thin film batteries.
Hanergy gallium arsenide thin film technology has high conversion efficiency, coupled with light, thin and flexible characteristics, so that thin film solar chips can be widely used in automobiles, drones, and unmanned driving systems without affecting the design appearance. , Satellite, consumer electronics, sensors, remote detection and other applications.
Picture: Fraunhofer ISE certification from Germany, Hanergy Alta gallium arsenide thin-film single-junction cell conversion efficiency reached 29.1%, breaking the world record
Over the years, Hanergy Alta has focused on using thin-film solar technology to provide the power needed for autonomous systems to operate. "Alta's goal is to help achieve a broader autonomous system and continue to lead the thin-film solar industry. We believe this is the best way to achieve independent innovation." Said Ding Jian, CEO of Hanergy Alta.
Ten billion dollars in reserve technology
The reason why Hanergy's conversion efficiency of thin-film solar technology can repeatedly break the world record has to do with its technology reserves in recent years.
From 2012 to 2014, Hanergy continued to invest, and successively completed Solibro, a German copper indium gallium selenium (CIGS) thin film solar cell manufacturer, Miasolé and Global Solar Energy (GSE), a US flexible Acquisition of gallium arsenide thin-film solar cell maker Alta Devices.
As a result, Hanergy possessed many of the world's most advanced copper indium gallium selenium, gallium arsenide and other technology patents at the time, as well as the independent design and manufacturing capabilities of core equipment for flexible thin film solar production lines.
In 2017, there were media reports that Hanergy successfully acquired Miasolé. In 2012, after Hanergy completed the acquisition of Miasolé, it integrated its technical route with other technologies that Hanergy has mastered, which greatly improved the yield of its technology.
After a series of mergers and acquisitions, currently, the single-junction GaAs thin-film solar modules prepared by Hanergy Alta have been certified by international authorities, and their photoelectric conversion efficiency has reached 25.1%. The glass-based large-area copper produced by the subsidiary Solibro The conversion rate of indium gallium selenium (CIGS) thin film components reached 18.72%; the flexible copper indium gallium selenium thin film components manufactured by the subsidiary MiaSolé relying on the sputtering method, the conversion rate reached 19.4%, which is currently the highest level in the world.
The data provided by Hanergy to reporters shows that as of November 11, Hanergy has accumulated more than 8,559 patent applications worldwide, and accumulated 1,857 patents.
Empowering mobile energy
Hanergy pioneered the concept of "mobile energy". After years of technology accumulation, Hanergy has established a complete technical route system for flexible thin-film solar products, and through the sharing of bicycles, backpacks, new energy vehicles and other carriers, thin-film solar has begun to enter millions of households.
For example, this record-breaking Hanergy Alta flexible gallium arsenide thin-film solar cell has high conversion efficiency, and is equipped with light, thin, and flexible characteristics, so that thin-film solar chips can be widely used without affecting the design appearance. Automotive, drone, unmanned systems, satellites, consumer electronics, sensors, remote detection and other applications.
Today, Hanergy's all-solar-powered cars developed using gallium arsenide thin-film solar technology have shaken off the dependence of traditional electric cars on charging piles, making it possible for cars to "unplug without limits" for short and medium distances. In August last year, Hanergy and German Audi reached a cooperation. Both parties will use gallium arsenide thin-film solar technology to launch a thin-film solar panoramic roof.
In the field of drones, Hanergy has applied gallium arsenide thin-film solar cells to drones, and developed the world's longest airtime industrial-grade solar drones, solving the "pain points" of the short drones of traditional drones. . The conventional battery-powered drone has a battery life of 1.5 to 2 hours and an operating range of 200 kilometers, while Hanergy's 4.4-meter fixed-wing drone can extend the battery life to 6 to 10 hours, extending the operating range to 400 to 700 kilometers.
GaAs technology is one such future-oriented thin-film solar technology. Under the same area, it can produce 2 to 3 times the efficiency of ordinary flexible solar cells, which is the thin film solar technology with the highest conversion rate in the world. "As we move towards the age of automated machinery, it is becoming increasingly important to have uninterrupted access to supplementary energy," said Rich Kapusta, chief marketing officer at Alta Devices. He believes that as the trend of automated machinery becomes more and more obvious, humans will need an energy source that can generate electricity without interruption and hardly change the shape of the objects that receive it.
In April this year, six ministries and commissions, including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the Ministry of Housing and Construction, jointly issued the "Smart PV Industry Development Action Plan (2018-2020)", which provided guidance on new products and new formats, photovoltaic smart innovation and smart energy upgrade and application of clean energy. The proposal "promote the combination of advanced photovoltaic products with consumer electronics, outdoor products, transportation, aerospace, military and national defense, etc., and encourage the development of rich and diverse mobile products such as solar charging bags, backpacks, clothing, solar drones, and quick-install power stations." Data show that in the next three years, the total potential market size of China's related mobile energy products will reach 8 trillion yuan, which is expected to become a new engine to drive China's economic growth during the "13th Five-Year Plan" period.