Mar 31 2008
Ascent Solar Technologies, Inc. announced today that the company has achieved its first quarter 2008 manufacturing milestone of Initial Operating Capability (IOC) on its 1.5 megawatt production line.
Ascent Solar employs a unique roll-to-roll manufacturing process to produce photovoltaic modules on large format plastic rolls. The first set of production runs with the new processing tools resulted in better than expected average efficiencies of 9.5% including a high efficiency of 10.27%. Uniformity in the manufacturing processes and tools has met company targets for the initial production trials by achieving overall thin-film uniformity of plus or minus approximately 3% across the width of the roll and plus or minus approximately 2% along its length.
Ascent Solar’s Senior Vice President for Manufacturing, Dr. Prem Nath stated, “IOC is an important milestone for Ascent Solar. Our entire manufacturing team is very pleased with the initial results, including the process uniformities demonstrated by our new production tools. We now intend to focus our efforts on repeatability, production yields and continued efficiency improvements.”
Ascent Solar plans to begin limited commercial production by the end of the second quarter of 2008, supplying development and test modules to customers in support of joint product development efforts currently underway, and initiating product certification activities.