UB engineers tapped for U.S. Space Force solar power project

UB engineers will help the federal government develop new solar power technologies for satellites and other space-based vehicles.

The work is being funded by a recently announced $9.9 million grant from the U.S. Space Force, in partnership with the Air Force Research Laboratory.

It centers on exploring how new materials, including synthetic compounds known as perovskites, can be used to replace silicon and other traditional materials used in photovoltaic technologies.

The project will pair UB electrical engineering professor Ian Sellers and students with researchers from the Rochester Institute of Technology, the grant’s lead institution, and other universities and private companies, such as Swift Solar and Solestial.

“The ability to efficiently move and power satellites and other space vehicles is critically important,” says Sellers, whose research is focused on next-generation solar cells and new materials for space photovoltaics. “With these new materials, we aim to develop more robust, lightweight solar technology that can withstand some of the more extreme environments that will be experienced in the orbits and planetary conditions now being proposed for space. This will ultimately improve communication coverage, national security, navigation, weather monitoring and many other space-based services, in addition to supporting basic research in the solar system.”

Sellers joined UB in 2023 as part of Advancing Top 25: UB Faculty Hiring, an initiative to hire upward of 200 full-time faculty members, including many of the most promising and established researchers and scholars from across the country.

The new project adds to other high-profile, space-based research programs at UB, including a $5 million Air Force Research Laboratory-sponsored project to monitor spacecraft and space debris, as well as a $8.5 million effort to improve hybrid space rockets.

The $9.9 million grant is part of a Space Force program called Space Strategic Technology Institutes. The program addresses space, science and technology challenges by partnering with university researchers.