NREL confirms Ascent's flexible solar at 10.4 percent

Thornton, Colo.-based Ascent Solar Technologies (Nasdaq:ASTI) said today it received third party verification of its solar module efficiency at 10.4 percent, surpassing its initial goal for energy conversion.

Ascent makes flexible, thin-film solar modules using copper, indium, gallium, and selenide (CIGS) materials deposited on lightweight plastic substrates. The U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Lab tested the 429 square-centimeter modules from Ascent's 1.5-megawatt capacity production line that started commercial production in the first quarter of this year. Ascent's initial efficiency-conversion target was 10 percent, and NREL verified that several modules surpassed the goal.

Ascent hopes to begin initial production at its 30 MW commercial plant at the beginning of 2010, and reaching 10-percent module efficiency was critical to the company's pricing strategy, said Prem Nath, Ascent's senior vice president of product operations, in a news release. The $100 million facility is under construction in Thornton behind its headquarters (see Ascent Solar buys new plant and HQ).

Last month, Ascent said it manufactured the first module of its kind for building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV). The monolithically interconnected, 15-foot long flexible module weighs about 4 pounds (see New Ascent Solar module weighs in at 4 pounds). The company said the module can produce 123 watts under standard test conditions with an aperture area efficiency of 9.1 percent.

Ascent spun out of a technology incubator in 2005. Shares of the company were down 2.18 percent to close at $7.63 today.