US based start-up of solar panels for use in space applications Solestial has closed its equity financing round with $10 million raised. The round was led by Airbus Ventures, along with AEI HorizonX, GPVC, Stellar Ventures, Industrious Ventures, and others.
Solestial creates ultra-thin silicon solar cells that it claims can self-cure radiation damage at normal operating temperatures in space. This 'breakthrough' self-curing ability allows lightweight panels to achieve minimum degradation 'over decades of life' in space.
"The new approach to radiation hardening also enables innovative proprietary packaging technology, resulting in a thin, lightweight panel that's optimized for long missions in low earth orbit (LEO)," explained Solestial.
It claims the panels can be mass produced using automated machines thus bringing down costs 90% lower than incumbent technologies with 'virtually unlimited manufacturing capacity'.
Proceeds will be used by the company to ramp up production and customer engagement capabilities. It is expanding its ground and flight testing in parallel and plans additional investments in R&D and go-to-market functions in the near future.
"We're on a mission to become the solar energy company for space, and this capital will help us dramatically accelerate delivery of our breakthrough technology at scale," said Stanislau Herasimenka, co-founder and CEO of Solestial.
Solestial was initial founded as Regher Solar in Arizona State University (ASU). The company claims to have signed letters of intent (LOI) for 'hundreds of millions of dollars' with commercial customers ranging from startups to major defense firms. Demand is set to grow further as Solestial counts projections that anticipate the satellite industry to grow from 5,000 operational now to 100,000 or more by 2030.