Ascent Solar Technologies Granted Additional Funding from U.S. Air Force Research Lab for PV Development

Energy Resource, March 28, 2007

ENERGY RESOURCE-28 March 2007-Ascent Solar Technologies Granted Additional Funding from U.S. Air Force Research Lab for PV Development(C)2007 JeraOne - http://www.jeraone.com

Ascent Solar Technologies Inc. has been granted a contract modification from the US Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) to continue development of flexible high-temperature substrates for monolithically integrated CIGS photovoltaics.

The contract modification adds an additional $607,365 of funded contract value to the original contract of $925,283 and extends the period of performance to March 2009.

The program originated at ITN Energy Systems Inc. (ITN) and was transferred to Ascent Solar in January 2007.

Ascent Solar was formed in October 2005 by ITN to commercialize certain thin film photovoltaic technology for space, near-space, and terrestrial applications that had been developed under internal and government funding.

"Completing the modification to our AFRL contract provides additional funds for development of a suitable high-temperature CIGS substrate. Depositing at a higher temperature than is possible with our baseline plastic substrates can lead to higher performance that is required for space and near-space applications," said Ascent Solar Chief Technical Officer Dr. Joseph Armstrong.

"We have already demonstrated efficiencies of nearly 14% in the space environment with high-temperature substrates, which is equivalent to well over 15% for terrestrial applications, and we believe that further performance improvement is possible. In addition, the fabrication process used in these high-performance cells is directly related to our existing prototype monolithically integrated manufacturing operations, and will be compatible with our manufacturing line presently under construction," Armstrong said.

Ascent Solar is a developer of thin-film photovoltaic materials and modules and is located in Littleton, Colorado. For more information, visit www.ascentsolar.com.

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