PEROVSKITE SOLAR CELLS TEST

The perovskite solar cell is a new solar cell developed in Japan in 2009, which is attracting attention all over the world as a next-generation solar cell. It has excellent features such as being able to be manufactured easily and at low cost by coating, being able to make the power generation layer thinner and lighter due to its high light absorption coefficient, and being able to achieve high efficiency. Moreover, in the future will be possible to develope a solar cell film with a thickness of about 20 micrometers in highly flexible materials such as polyethylene. Thus, innovative power generation such as on-film power generation of balloons, wearable power generation, and power generation on inflatable structures will be possible.

After JAXA performed the first world operation test of a Perovskite solar cell in a balloon flight environment for power generation in 2019, for this experiment the agency in order to form a perovskite solar cell on a thin film instead of glass, developed technologies such as optimization of transparent conductive film, film formation method at low temperature close to film heat resistance conditions, and optimization of sealing and electrode removal. Thus, the flight was the first one in the world to carry out a flight experiment of a thin film film type perovskite solar cell after improving the measurement circuit to cope with high-rate attitude fluctuations. The final goal is to increase the degree of sophistication of future balloon experiments by using the balloon membrane for power generation.

Balloon launched on: 7/4/2021 at 5:30 jst
Launch site: Multipurpose Aviation Research Field, Taiki-Cho, Hokkaido, Japan  
Balloon launched by: Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS) / Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)
Balloon manufacturer/size/composition: Weather Balloon 11 m
Flight identification number: BS21-07
End of flight (L for landing time, W for last contact, otherwise termination time): 7/4/2021
Balloon flight duration (F: time at float only, otherwise total flight time in d:days / h:hours or m:minutes - ): ~ 2 h 30 m
Landing site: In the Pacific Ocean, 60 km SE of Taiki, Japan

• Details of the balloon experiment (in Japanese) JAXA website