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Ascent Solar Technologies said that it has successfully completed internal qualification of a packaging solution for its flexible monolithically integrated copper indium gallium (di)selenide (CIGS) thin-film photovoltaic modules. The company's flexible encapsulation solution passed the guideline of 1000 hours of damp-heat testing (85% relative humidity and 85°C temperature) set forth by IEC 61646 standards for performance and long-term reliability of thin-film solar modules.
CEO Farhad Moghadam called the results "a breakthrough development not just for Ascent Solar but also for the advancement of flexible CIGS technology and the differentiating capabilities it brings to the market. We are very proud of this achievement which now sets the stage for certification of our products by external agencies."
The chief executive also called the encapsulation material qualification "well-timed to meet the requirements of our initial production from the 30MW high-volume manufacturing plant," which is slated to come online in early 2010.
The news follows Ascent's announcement in July that the National Renewable Energy Lab had verified that the monolithically integrated CIGS modules produced on the company's 1.5MW production line had achieved conversion efficiencies exceeding 10%.
