Ascent Solar Technologies, Inc. - From Lab to Fab - Dr. Joseph H. Armstrong Chief Technical Officer 1
Company Snapshot Founded: 2005 (technology development started IPO: July 2006 at ITN Energy Systems in early 90 s) Headquarters: Thornton, Colorado Manufacturing: Littleton and Thornton, Colorado Technology: Thin-Film CIGS (flexible, plastic substrate) Mfg Process: Roll-to-roll manufacturing, monolithic integration, intelligent process control Status: Commercially producing modules End Markets: EIPV, Defense, Consumer, Certifications: IEC 61646 (flexible package) MIL-STD 810G Transportation and BIPV/BAPV UL Pending R&D Magazine has Selected Ascent Solar s Innovative Monolithically-integrated CIGS on Plastic Substrate as one of the 100 Most Innovative Technologies for 2010 2
Thin Film Competitive Landscape Technology Thin-Film PV Structure Polycrystalline Amorphous Chemistry CIGS CdTe Silicon Construction Rigid* Flexible* Rigid* Rigid* Flexible* Substrate Glass Stainless Steel Plastic Glass Glass Stainless Steel Plastic Integration Monolithic Discrete Discrete Monolithic Monolithic Monolithic Discrete Monolithic Solyndra + Showa Shell Honda Soltec AVANCIS (Shell/ Saint-Gobain) Daystar (DSTI) Siemens EPV Avitec Terra Solar Sulfurcell/Intel IBM/TOK Global Solar Odersun (Copper) Würth Miasole Nanosolar HelioVolt Solopower Shurjo Energy ZWS Solarion ISET? Solopower * Refers to manufacturing process, not module construction + Deposition on cylindrical substrate, such as glass tubing Ascent Solar (ASTI) First Solar (FSLR) Abound PrimeStar ATA Kaneka/MSK Mitsubishi Heavy Sharp Schott XsunX Ersol EPV/Heliodomi Tianjin Solema SA Sinonar Shenzehn Topray Free Energy Europe Fuji JNSolar Terra Solar Uni-Solar (ENER) Canon JNSolar PowerFilm VHF Technologies Flexcellence Additional companies using Applied Materials, Oerlikon, or Energo turn-key manufacturing lines 3
NREL-verified Performance of Flexible Monolithically Integrated CIGS 4
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PV Operations at Ascent - Systematic Progression from R&D Through Production 6
Technological Advances Enable Migration to Larger Building Blocks Reduced Part Count Easier Assembly Reduced Cost Reduced Ohmic Losses Between Submodules Double-Wide 5m Module (WSLB 3200-190) Announced 9/7/2010 320 W Up to 190 Volts 50 Watts/kg 7
Regional Collaborations National Laboratories National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Sandia National Laboratory Academia Colorado School of Mines University of Colorado Colorado State University University of Denver Government Colorado Governor s Energy Office Colorado Renewable Energy Collaboratory (CREC) Center for Revolutionary Photoconversion (CRSP) Legislative Senator Udall s Office Senator Bennet Local Government Jefferson County Adams County Thornton City 8
Regional Collaborations (continued) Industry ITN Energy Systems Bye Aerospace Scion Aviation SkySentry ALD Nanosolutions Sierra Nevada Space Systems Lockheed Martin 9
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Colorado Renewable Energy Collaboratory (CREC) A Research Partnership Created in Early 2007 Among: National Renewable Energy Laboratory Colorado School of Mines Colorado State University University of Colorado at Boulder. Six Research Centers Including CRSP CRSP Launched April 2008
CRSP Membership Structure Sponsored Research Program Participating Institutions Members State Funding Shared Research Program Sponsored Research Agreements Membership Agreements Tailored interface for each member Decide how to access research Specify research objectives Selection of PIs and scope of research Guidance on dissemination of results. Operations fee is 10% of total costs Capped at $300K/year Applied to annual membership fee. Uniform interface for each member Access to shared research results and royalty free, non-exclusive licenses Participation in selection of projects Access to all CRSP activities. Annual membership fee $50K/year $10K/year for SBIR companies.
CRSP 2009 Shared Research Program Awarded Seed Research Grants ($800,000) Inorganic materials and novel device architectures for advanced solar cells Transparent Back Contacts to Enable Novel Architectures in Advanced CdTe and Cu(In,Ga)Se 2 Solar Cells Optimizing Cu 2 ZnSnS 4 -based Photovoltaic Devices: Characterizing Films Made From Nanoparticle Inks for their Application in Inexpensive and Scalable Thin Film Photovoltaics 3D Plasmonic Nanostructures for Novel Electromagnetic Energy Conversion Devices and Systems Novel organic/polymeric/hybrid inorganic-organic solar cells Gas Diffusion Barriers for Thin Film Solar Devices Using Atmospheric Atomic Layer Deposition Boron-Based Polymers (new hole conducting polymers for DSSC) Third Generation PV New Materials and Time Resolved Measurements for Optimizing Hole-Transfer Photochemistry Novel Nanoparticle Superlattices for Space-Separated Quantum Cutting Multiexcitons in Quantum Nanostructures: From Theory to Design Solar Fuels Synthesis of Nanoscale Oxy(nitrides) for Solar Water Splitting Electrochemical Synthesis of Catalysts for Photoelectrolysis and Conformal TCO Deposition
Government Funded R&D Activities AST s Government-funded R&D Activities for Flexible Monolithically Integrated PV Fall Under Three Major Categories Advanced Single-junction Technology Multi-junction Technology Advanced Materials Stakeholders DoD DOE NSF DARPA Air Force (AFRL, MDA, OSD) ARMY (Natick) Mid-bandgap Single Junction without CdS 14
Summary Ascent Solar Technologies, Inc. is the First Commercial Demonstration of Flexible Monolithically Integrated CIGS Photovoltaics Significant R&D has been Performed to Achieve this Feat Complexity of the Technical Challenge Required Systematic Development from R&D Through Production was Required AST Benefited Greatly from Collaboration with Local, State, and Federal Governments 15