The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe’s gateway to space. Its mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.
Find out more about space activities in our 23 Member States, and understand how ESA works together with their national agencies, institutions and organisations.
Exploring our Solar System and unlocking the secrets of the Universe
Go to topicProtecting life and infrastructure on Earth and in orbit
Go to topicUsing space to benefit citizens and meet future challenges on Earth
Go to topicMaking space accessible and developing the technologies for the future
Go to topicThank you for liking
You have already liked this page, you can only like it once!
Every photovoltaic plant (solar cell power plants) has a sensor which is verifying the amount of radiation arriving on the panel. If the sensor is experiencing a failure due to snow, dust or a wrong calibration, then the efficiency measurement is giving a wrong interpretation of the energy production. Satellite information measuring the real solar radiation tells the correct amount at any given time and the correct amount of electricity which the plant should produce can be calculated, as a reference. This helps to detect possible failures and the need of plant maintenance operation.