Ascent Solar achieves efficiency milestone

Solar/PV

Ascent Solar achieves efficiency milestone

It has achieved over 9.5 percent efficiency for flexible Copper, Indium, Gallium, Selenide (CIGS) monolithically integrated modules

Thursday, December 04, 2008

LITTLETON, USA: Ascent Solar Technologies Inc., a developer of state of the art flexible thin-film solar modules, has achieved greater than 9.5 percent efficiency for its flexible Copper, Indium, Gallium, Selenide (CIGS) monolithically integrated modules.

The US Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has independently verified that the modules measured as high as 9.64 percent in conversion efficiency. The modules tested at NREL were produced from the company’s 1.5MW pilot production line.

“We have been working to achieve these efficiencies during our internal optimization process, and we view this achievement as a tremendous breakthrough. The test modules measure six inches wide by one foot long and serves as our building block for portable power and building integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) products,” said Dr. Prem Nath, Sr. Vice President of Manufacturing for Ascent Solar. “Our goal continues to be the commercialization of flexible thin-film CIGS modules using a plastic substrate, which we hope will uniquely position Ascent Solar to provide light weight flexible photovoltaic material at low cost.”

Lawrence Kazmerksi, Executive Director at NREL, said, “This is significant. Many doubted that a thin-film CIGS solar cell-on-plastic technology could be possible. Ascent Solar not only achieved this, but they now have confirmed efficiencies at NREL on fully integrated, monolithic prototype modules near 10 percent. This appears to be a substantial leap toward realizing high-performance, inexpensive thin-film solar photovoltaics.”

©CIOL Bureau