Experimental solar concentrator

A strip of four black-coloured solar panels, centre, are surrounded by raised triangular mirrors to focus extra sunlight on them and increase their efficiency. A second strip of four panels (on left) serves as a control for the experiment. Deveoped by CSL and flown on the front panel of Proba-2, the aim is to increase efficiency so less complex and expensive solar panels can be used on telecom satellites and other power-hungry missions. Sunlight has been concentrated by a factor of 1.55 in the initial eight months of Proba-2's lifetime.