News

11 June 2010

 

Ascent CIGS PV modules used in Hydro Brise Soleil product line at Barcelona test site

Following rigorous internal product development and testing, copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS) laminated thin-film photovoltaic modules made by Ascent Solar Technologies Inc of Thornton, CO, USA are now ready for beta-test deployment at one of the aluminum building systems product development sites of Norway-based Hydro, a global supplier of aluminum and aluminum products that employs about 19,000 people in 40 countries. Hydro also owns about 30% of Ascent Solar.

CIGS thin-film flexible solar modules made by Ascent Solar and integrated into the BIPV Brise Soleil product line will be installed at the external beta test site used by Hydro Building Systems (HBS) in Barcelona, Spain. The development is part of the natural progression in designing new building-integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) products and is the result of internal beta testing and product development on the Brise Soleil CIGS solar integrated products.

The test installation aims to collect performance data, evaluate architecture aesthetics and showcase Hydro's Brise Soleil line to its partners, customers, system designers and architects. The beta-test site is a vertically mounted shading device system that is integrated with solar technology. The optimized Ascent Solar modules integrated into the Brise Soleil line will be evaluated against existing silicon-wafer-based panels. Ascent Solar says that this external deployment will help to set a standard for the integration of lightweight flexible CIGS modules, as this will be the first time a CIGS module manufactured using a plastic substrate has been integrated onto an aluminum façade shading device system.

“This is an important step forward in our ongoing collaboration with Ascent Solar,” says HBS product development director Werner Jager. “The installation at our test site will provide the performance data we need in order to demonstrate the readiness of our CIGS integrated shading system to our customers. Ascent Solar has shown tremendous progress since we began this endeavor in establishing our Brise Soleil product line,” he adds.

“We are pleased that our product development with Hydro Building Systems has progressed to this stage,” comments Ascent Solar’s president & CEO Farhad Moghadam. “Our lightweight, durable and high-power CIGS modules are an ideal match for the shading system designed by HBS,” he adds. “Installation onto the test site is a real indication that our product development is nearing completion and is crucial to our viability for larger system installations down the road.”

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