Solar insolation in space

Was watching the NASA Channel last night and one segment they were talking about the solar panels they use to create electricity in space. While they didn't mention it , it piqued my curiosity as to how much insolation they can get in the vacuum of space. In perfect and exceptional situations we can get 12-1300 watts per square meter, maybe more on earth. Anybody know what they get in space?
2.1 Kw Suntech 175 mono, Classic 200, Trace SW 4024 ( 15 years old but brand new out of sealed factory box Jan. 2015), Bogart Tri-metric, 700 ah @24 volt AGM battery bank. Plenty of Baja Sea of Cortez sunshine.
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Second system 1890W 3 × 300W No name brand poly, 3×330 Sunsolar Poly panels, Morningstar TS 60 PWM controller, no name 2000W inverter 400Ah LFP 24V nominal battery with Daly BMS, used for water pumping and day time air conditioning.
5Kw Yanmar clone single cylinder air cooled diesel generator for rare emergency charging and welding.
This high UV rad would accelerate the degradation of your normal earth bound PV panels, increasing their shunt leakage current. Earth surface UV-A and UV-B radiation is a dominate reason for the 0.5% to 0.9% drop in PV panel output per year.
I heard it was a limiting factor for space station staying time on the first SpaceX crewed Dragon mission as the PV cells on the trunk section were not super UV resistant and degraded relatively quickly over time. The next crewed Dragon will have better (and more expensive) UV resistant PV cells.
"Energy" in solar radiation is a bit more complex than just W/sm... We use 1,000 W/sm for how much energy a solar panel can harvest (at around ~15% average efficiency). Since solar panels really only use visible light, the long wave (heat) and shortwave (UV) radiation part of the energy spectrum is not useful. The atmosphere does a good job of stopping most of the shorter wave lengths (UVB and UVC).
Nice chart of Edge of atmosphere vs a sea level:
https://ecotality.com/can-solar-panels-work-with-artificial-light/
And solar panel conversion ranges:
-Bill
Spent a few years looking at the manuals.
http://members.sti.net/offgridsolar/
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http://members.sti.net/offgridsolar/
E-mail [email protected]
2.1 Kw Suntech 175 mono, Classic 200, Trace SW 4024 ( 15 years old but brand new out of sealed factory box Jan. 2015), Bogart Tri-metric, 700 ah @24 volt AGM battery bank. Plenty of Baja Sea of Cortez sunshine.
https://spotthestation.nasa.gov/
http://members.sti.net/offgridsolar/
E-mail [email protected]
2.1 Kw Suntech 175 mono, Classic 200, Trace SW 4024 ( 15 years old but brand new out of sealed factory box Jan. 2015), Bogart Tri-metric, 700 ah @24 volt AGM battery bank. Plenty of Baja Sea of Cortez sunshine.
Save me a pacifico! Enjoy !
http://members.sti.net/offgridsolar/
E-mail [email protected]
2.1 Kw Suntech 175 mono, Classic 200, Trace SW 4024 ( 15 years old but brand new out of sealed factory box Jan. 2015), Bogart Tri-metric, 700 ah @24 volt AGM battery bank. Plenty of Baja Sea of Cortez sunshine.
http://members.sti.net/offgridsolar/
E-mail [email protected]