Ascent Solar makes CIGS material "breakthrough"
Ascent Solar Technologies has made a "significant breakthrough" with its copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS) thin-film photovoltaic cells, the company has asserted.
The company has achieved a solar energy conversion efficiency of 14 per cent for the material on flexible plastic substrate manufactured on its 1.5MW-capacity Fab1 commercial production line.
President and chief executive officer of the firm Dr Farhad Mogahadam said it was an important step forward for the team.
"Ascent Solar's ability to manufacturer monolithically integrated modules with efficiency as high as 11.7 per cent in regular production serves as a vital element to our low-cost per watt manufacturing goal," he stated.
The US Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory measured and confirmed that the company's CIGS material had 14.01 per cent cell efficiency.
Ascent Solar was created by ITN Energy Systems in 2005.
