Azure Space Solar Power

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AZUR SPACE Solar Power GmbH
legal form GmbH
founding 1964
Seat Heilbronn , Germany
management Jürgen Heizmann
Number of employees 227 ( annual average 2018 )
sales 47.4 million euros ( 2018 )
Branch Photovoltaics
Website www.azurspace.com

Azur Space is an international company from the photovoltaic industry based in Heilbronn , which develops and produces high-performance triple solar cells and assemblies in gallium arsenide technology for space travel and for terrestrial concentrator systems.

According to its own information, the company is the global market leader in the solar cell market for telecommunications applications . In addition to solar cells for space travel, the company also produces CPV solar cells , which in 2013 accounted for half of the production volume and a third of sales. In November 2012, the company set a new efficiency world record for a CPV solar cell manufactured using MOVPE with an efficiency of 43.3% . However, the CPV business came to an almost complete standstill in autumn 2014 due to insolvent large customers.

AZUR SPACE is a 100% subsidiary of Renewable Investments Holding SA (RIH), Luxembourg, and thus belongs to the Generali Group .

As of January 2014, Azur Space has supplied over ten million solar cells made of silicon and 1.5 million made of gallium arsenide for around 400 space projects . The Rosetta comet probe, which received a lot of media attention in 2015, is equipped with solar cells from Azur Space, as is the associated comet lander Philae . Other space projects whose energy supply is based on solar cells from Azur Space or its predecessor companies are satellites from Intelsat , Globalstar , Eutelsat , Galileo , Meteosat , GLONASS and GMES , the Hubble space telescope , the Herschel space telescope , the Planck space telescope and the space probes Venus Express and Mars Express as well as the (as of 2016) current projects ExoMars , BepiColombo , JUICE and Neosat .

history

The company goes back to the Heilbronn factory of the Telefunken Group, in which a division was established in 1964 that dealt with the development of solar cells for space travel. In 1969, five years after its founding, the division equipped the first German satellite Azur with solar cells. The first solar cells for terrestrial projects followed in 1973. The Heilbronn division came to DASA in 1989 from Telefunken and AEG and in 1994 became part of the newly founded Angewandte Solarenergie GmbH (ASE), a subsidiary of the RWE Group. RWE spun off the Heilbronn company in 2006 and sold it to Generali. At that time, the company was given the name Azur Space , reminiscent of the Azur satellite from 1969.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Imprint
  2. ↑ AZUR SPACE Solar Power GmbH, Heilbronn: Annual financial statements as of December 31, 2018 , section Notes on the income statement , item personnel expenses / employees at bundesanzeiger.de (search term Azur Space )
  3. ↑ AZUR SPACE Solar Power GmbH, Heilbronn: Annual financial statements as of December 31, 2018 , section Development of the asset, financial and earnings position at bundesanzeiger.de (search term Azur Space )
  4. ↑ a b AZUR SPACE Solar Power GmbH, Heilbronn: Annual financial statements as of December 31, 2014 , section Business development at bundesanzeiger.de (search term Azur Space )
  5. ↑ a b c Manfred Stockburger: The solar pioneers. Azur Space looks back on 50 years of company history . In: Heilbronn voice . January 10, 2014.
  6. ↑ AZUR SPACE Solar Power GmbH, Heilbronn: Press release of November 30, 2012 , azurspace.com (PDF).
  7. ↑ Semiconductor Today: Azure Space reports CPV cell efficiency of 43.3% , semiconductor-today.com
  8. ↑ Manfred Stockburger: Philae is alive . Solar cells from Heilbronn give landing apparatus new energy - joy at Azur Space. In: Heilbronn voice . June 16, 2015.
  9. ↑ Projects & References on azurspace.com (accessed February 21, 2016)
  10. ↑ AZUR SPACE Solar Power GmbH, Heilbronn: Annual financial statements as of December 31, 2014 , research and development section at bundesanzeiger.de (search term Azur Space )