How Power System Supply Chains Are Constraining the Mega-Constellation Era
Scaling Solar Panel Production
The space industry must scale solar panel production from dozens to thousands annually—but material shortages, capacity constraints, and 18-month lead times threaten the $1.8 trillion space economy
Aerospace-grade precision meets automotive-scale volume
In June 2025, Sierra Space announced an expansion that would triple its solar power system manufacturing capacity to 150 kilowatts per year. Around the same time, Airborne, a Dutch aerospace composites manufacturer, signed an agreement to produce 40 solar panel arrays monthly for Airbus’s mega-constellation satellites. Solestial, a newer entrant, demonstrated it could manufacture a complete solar array wing in just one month.
These sound like impressive numbers—until you do the math on what mega-constellations actually require.
SpaceX’s Starlink has already deployed over 5,000 satellites and has regulatory approval for 42,000. Amazon’s Project Kuiper has authorization for 3,236 satellites. OneWeb is expanding beyond its initial constellation. Across the industry, filings total somewhere between 82,000 and 100,000 satellites planned for deployment this decade. The United States alone expects to operate 20,000 commercial satellites by 2030, double the current 10,000.
If each satellite requires an average of 2 kilowatts of solar capacity—a conservative estimate for modern communication satellites—the industry needs to produce roughly 20 megawatts of space-qualified solar arrays annually just to meet near-term deployment schedules. Current manufacturing capacity sits at a fraction of that requirement. The result: procurement delays stretching 12 to 18 months have become standard, cascading into satellite integration delays of 6 to 9 months, pushing total constellation deployment timelines out by 18 to 27 months.
The global space economy is projected to grow from $613 billion in 2024 to $1.8 trillion by 2035—nearly tripling in just over a decade. The U.S. space sector alone could expand from roughly $300 billion to $900 billion in that timeframe. But those projections assume the industry can actually build and deploy the satellites. And right now, solar power systems represent one of the most significant bottlenecks in that supply chain.
The space industry is attempting an unprecedented transition: from producing dozens of bespoke satellites annually with decade-long design cycles, to manufacturing thousands of standardized spacecraft on timelines measured in months. Solar panels, it turns out, are where that ambition collides with physical reality.
