Ascent Solar Technologies, Inc. Selected for Solar America Initiative Pre-Incubator Program

THORNTON, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Ascent Solar Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTI), a developer manufacturer of state of the art flexible thin-film solar modules, announced today that it has been selected for negotiations for a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Photovoltaic (PV) Technology Pre- Incubator project award. The new subcontract from DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) represents approximately $315,000 of subcontract value over a 12-month period, pending negotiations. Funding for the PV Technology Pre-Incubator program comes from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

The proposed effort involves using a zinc-magnesium-oxide (ZnMgO) deposited by Ascent’s proprietary process in order to replace the standard window layer of a copper-indium-gallium-(di)selenide (CIGS) device, and eventually, replacing all the top layers of the device. Use of ZnMgO could potentially improve the performance and reduce the cost of AST’s CIGS product, as well as provide another piece of the puzzle towards developing the next generation of CIGS products.

Dr. Joseph Armstrong, Chief Technical Officer of Ascent Solar, stated, “We are very pleased that the DOE and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory have selected us for this award. This program builds upon our existing ongoing internal research and development in this area, and has heritage back to our work on multijunction devices with the United States Missile Defense Agency and the United States Air Force. Successful completion of this program can significantly change how our existing devices are completed in the near future, and can have positive impact upon the manufacturing process in terms of reduced capital expenditures in setting up a facility, as well as reduction in the overall manufacturing cost of our product.”