Strong position in solar panels for space expanded with Sparkwing
When thinking of solar panels for satellites, one thinks of Airbus Netherlands in Leiden. The company has developed and built solar panels for over 160 different and unique space missions, including the Rosetta comet hunter, the JUICE planet explorer, and the new manned mission to the moon Artemis. In the coming years, the company faces a whole new challenge: supplying solar panels for not just one, but hundreds of satellites at a time.
Eight years ago, Airbus Netherlands saw a new, emerging market: smaller satellites and constellations of dozens or hundreds of satellites for communication, for example. “These satellites also need solar panels for their energy supply,” says Sytze Kampen, Head of Technology at Airbus Netherlands. “To capitalize on this, we have developed a new product: Sparkwing.”
Tapping into a new market
Sparkwing solar panels are cheaper than the complex, one-off solar panels used for major European or American space missions. This is possible by making different choices, Kampen explains. Not as light as possible, but as light as necessary. Not the maximum energy yield, but sufficient for the mission. What started with Sparkwings for a single satellite quickly grew into orders for four, six, sometimes eight satellites at a time. Until Canadian MDA Space ordered hundreds of solar panels in 2024 for the new Aurora constellation to be launched by satellite operator Telesat.
‘With Sparkwing, we wanted to tap into a whole new market,’ says Kampen. ‘In the beginning, this entailed significant risks. Would that market actually materialize? And would we, with Dutch price levels, be able to become a truly attractive supplier? By now, we can wholeheartedly say that we succeeded. Sparkwing has become a success.’
One wing per day
To scale up from piece production to series production of solar panels, Airbus approached the Netherlands Space Agency. Through ESA’s ARTES Core Competitiveness programme, NLSA supports companies developing innovative products and services for satellite communication.
Kampen calls the financial contribution an enabler: ‘NLSA invested in technology development so that we could adapt the design of our solar panels and the production process for series production. This subsequently helped us invest in our factory in Oegstgeest, where a complete wing with solar panels must “roll off the line” every day for the next two years. In a short time, a whole new industrial capacity has thus been created.’
Robots at work
To produce hundreds of solar panels at a rapid pace, Airbus Netherlands uses various suppliers. One of those suppliers is Airborne from The Hague. This company manufactures substrates: the carbon fiber sandwich panels with an aluminum honeycomb structure inside, onto which the solar cells are later attached.
Airborne also applied to the Netherlands Space Agency for support to make the manufacturing process of the substrates more cost-efficient. ‘We are a medium-sized company. Large investments for innovation are difficult for us to raise,’ says Director Aerospace Sandor Woldendorp. ‘With the ARTES grant, we managed to make the business case work and were able to capitalize on this opportunity for an order for hundreds of substrates.’
Airborne used the innovation funds, among other things, to automate the manufacturing process. The carbon material for Sparkwing solar panels is no longer laid down by human hands, but by robots. That is almost ten times faster and, Woldendorp notes, ‘robots do not suffer from startup problems on Monday morning or a Friday afternoon slump’. Sensors and cameras inside the robots immediately perform quality checks, so that fewer people are involved here as well..
Building on a strong position
Airborne started fifteen years ago with substrates for solar panels. Back then, too, with a contribution from NLSA. Later, it used a contribution from the ARTES program again to become a leading supplier, and now to deliver the large order of substrates for Airbus’s Sparkwings. ‘The Netherlands is not a cheap country when you look at wages and business locations. By innovating and automating smartly, we still manage to compete in this competitive market,’ says Woldendorp.
Both Airbus and Airborne have also made significant investments in their own production facilities. They therefore expect that the mega order from MDA Space will not be the end of it. ‘More satellite constellations are in development,’ notes Kampen. ‘From Eutelsat’s OneWeb to the European Union’s IRIS2, and national-level projects in France and Germany. By continuing to renew and optimize our Sparkwing catalog, the Netherlands can maintain and further expand its strong position in solar panels.’
