Ascent Solar
and Texsa have signed a definitive cooperation agreement focusing on the development of new flexible copper-indium-gallium(di)selenide thin-film photovoltaic roofing products for the European marketplace.
The
companies will collaborate in the development of building-integrated
PV (BIPV) roofing materials based on Texsa’s existing product lines
of protective roofing and thermal insulating boards for inverted-system flat or
pitched roofs. Ascent says it will supply the Spanish company with TFPV material from
its existing 1.5 MW CIGS production line in Littleton, CO, for Texsa to develop, test, and certify
integrated BIPV products.
After Ascent completes its planned expansion of production capacity, the thin-film solar company says it plans to increase deliveries of modules to Texsa.
Subsequent demonstration-scale projects should help validate the system-level performance and to develop market demand for the jointly developed BIPV
roofing products, according to the partners.
“Ascent
Solar is pleased to be working with roofing innovators like Texsa,” said Joseph McCabe, Ascent’s VP of business development. “We believe Spain offers an
attractive business environment for photovoltaic roofing, including a high
level of incentives for distributed-generation BIPV solutions.”
Josep Sala, Texsa’s director general, noted that his company is “fully convinced that the
combination of expertise between Ascent Solar and Texsa will provide the best
energy-generating photovoltaic roofing solution for commercial success in the Iberia, France, and Italy markets.”
No financial details of the agreement were disclosed.
Ascent has also signed BIPV deals with French firm Icopal, Hydro Building Systems (which owns a minority interest in the TFPV company), and others. In its latest SEC filing, Ascent said it expects to qualify production tools for its initial 30-MW CIGS production line in the company’s new Thornton, CO, factory by the end of 2009 and then ramp to volume production in early 2010.
— Tom Cheyney