Ascent Solar Technologies, Inc. is a publicly traded photovoltaic (PV) company located in Thornton, Colorado. Its primary product is a flexible CIGS solar cell on a plastic substrate.
Technology
Ascent Solar's thin-film solar modules are manufactured from CIGS cells using copper indium gallium (di)selenide semiconductor (CIGS), which has shown a 10.5% NREL efficiency in real-world conditions. What makes this proprietary technology unique, however, is its relative size, weight and flexibility: Ascent's CIGS panels currently allow for 85 watts/meter, and 48 watts/kg, thereby giving them the greatest power density and weight ratio among available flexible photovoltaic products[3] by a significant margin. This allows for the efficient use of solar power in a range of new contexts, in which size or weight restrictions have previously rendered solar power impracticable, such as cell phones, airplanes, unmanned vehicles, consumer electronics, railways, space programs, and off-grid applications. This developing technology was selected as one of the "100 Most Innovative Technologies for 2010" by R&D Magazine,[4] and as one of the "50 Best Inventions of 2011" by Time magazine.[5]