Ascent Solar Wins High Efficiency Solar Cell Program

SOLAR DAILY

Current Ascent Solar thin film PV technology.

by Staff Writers
Littleton CO (SPX) May 10, 2007
Ascent Solar Technologies has announced that it has been selected by the U.S. Air Force to develop an innovative flexible thin film tandem solar cell with the goal of demonstrating thin film photovoltaic efficiencies of 20%. Tandem solar cells are a combination of two cells stacked atop one another, with the top and bottom cells gathering energy from separate parts of the solar spectrum.

Tandem cells require two solar cells that not only have the desired electrical and optical properties, but must also share compatible manufacturing processes. The program will be performed under a phase one Small Business Innovative Research contract.

Ascent Solar Vice President and Chief Technology Officer Dr. Joseph Armstrong stated, "This important Air Force program builds upon significant work already performed by Ascent Solar personnel in the area of wide bandgap thin-film photovoltaic technology. In particular, this program will demonstrate the ability to make solar cells using a new material system that has the potential to serve as the top cell of a new and innovative tandem solar cell configuration on which Ascent Solar has been working.

"It's like putting two efficient technologies in a hybrid car, each with its own strengths, but performing better together than either one individually. We are delighted that the U.S. Air Force selected Ascent Solar to work with it in this exciting and promising technology area."

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SOLAR DAILY

Solar-Powered Boat Completes 13000 Kilometer Journey

Geneva (AFP) Feb 3, 2007
An innovative Swiss catamaran has arrived in New York after a 13,000 kilometre (8,000 miles) journey that included the first ever Atlantic crossing by a solar-powered boat, the owners said Wednesday. Sun21 and its five crew docked in New York late Tuesday, five months after leaving the souther Spanish port of Chipiona near Cadiz to demonstrate the value of solar power for maritime use, the Transatlantic 21 partnership said on its website.

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