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That's what the Frederick-based maker of solar-based, power-generating cells can say about its role in the record-breaking, round-the-world flight by the Breitling Orbiter 3 balloon. The two-man balloon settled onto Egypt's Western Desert on Sunday, finishing a journey of more than 29,000 miles.
To help generate electrical juice for each piece of their on-board electrical equipment -- from the global-positioning systems to the all-important microwave oven -- the balloonists relied upon "photovoltaic cells" made by Solarex workers at the company's Frederick factory.
"This is just a great kind of feedback" that our products have value, said Sarah C. Howell, media and government affairs coordinator for Solarex, a business unit of Amoco/Enron Solar. "This just serves to bring that to light."
Bertrand Piccard, 41, a Swiss psychiatrist, and Brian Jones, 51, a British pilot turned balloon instructor, became the first to circumnavigate the globe nonstop.
Solarex designed and built 20 lightweight solar-power modules that were arranged in a cube and suspended beneath the balloon's high-technology, high-altitude gondola. Usually, each module, which generates 60 watts of power, weighs 15 pounds. But since keeping weight down was crucial, the company designed cells that weighed 2 pounds each by laminating them with plastic instead of glass and dispensing with a heavy frame structure.
The cells, which usually cost $4.50 per watt to make and install, were offered to the balloonists at a discount the company declined to specify.
The on-board electrical systems -- which included the internal lighting and external navigation lamps, communications systems and a water heater -- ran off five batteries. But the solar panels captured the sun's rays and transformed them into electricity that the batteries could store to stay charged.
Solarex employs 450 of its worldwide work force of 550 in Frederick. It also has plants in Virginia and Australia. About 70 percent of what the company makes is exported.
Pub Date: 3/23/99