Portable, lightweight, amalgamated thin-film photovoltaic/battery combination

Front Edge Technology's (FET) work will demonstrate the feasibility of combining solar-cells and thin-film batteries to create a practical self-contained power source for Marine expeditionary forces. A subscale 28-volt breadboard system, using high-efficiency Spectrolab solar-cells, FET's existing thin-film batteries, and off-the-shelf charging circuit will be fabricated and tested during Phase I. The tests are expected to demonstrate the feasibility and verify the characteristics of FET's proposed full-scale system. The full-size FET system will be built during Phase II and be able to provide 100W of peak power and 200Wh of stored energy from a flexible wearable array measuring only 0.3 square meters in area by 1.1mm thick, and weighing one kilogram.