In the project, DARPA’s Vulture program, Versa Power’s solid state SOFC technology will be paired with solar equipment to serve as the aircraft’s on-board source of electricity, providing continuous energy and making long-term propulsion and flight operations possible.
This technology will enable an aircraft to remain on station at stratospheric altitudes for at least five years and perform persistent communications, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions from altitudes above 60,000ft.
Versa Power will also engineer and scale up its technology for an SOFC-based energy storage and power generation system to be incorporated in a demonstrator version of the SolarEagle aircraft during the project’s next phase.
Versa Power’s work to adapt its SOFC fuel cell designs was funded in part under a US Department of Energy initiative to introduce green technologies enabling solar and wind installations to produce energy on a continuous basis.
Versa Power CEO Bob Stokes said that this technology is expected to have a number of applications as more and more forms of alternative energy come on line in society.
