30 May 2012

Ascent’s CTO joins Bye Aerospace’s Strategic Advisory Council

Joseph Armstrong Ph.D., chief technology officer of Ascent Solar Technologies Inc (ASTI) of Thornton, CO, USA, has joined the Strategic Advisory Council of Bye Aerospace Inc. Ascent Solar makes lightweight thin-film photovoltaic modules based on copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS) using flexible substrate materials. Founded in 2007 and based near Denver, Bye Aerospace is applying clean-energy solutions to aircraft designs for the business aviation and defense markets.

Armstrong has spent most of his 30+ year career in photovoltaics (PV), including with Martin Marietta Corp (now Lockheed Martin) and ITN Energy Systems before becoming a founding member of the ASTI team in 2005, developing lightweight, flexible photovoltaics for terrestrial, aeronautics, near-space, and space applications. He is a named inventor on five US patents in areas including shape memory alloys, fuel cells, electronic circuit assembly, and thin-film PV technology, as well as on numerous pending-patent applications. Armstrong has a bachelor’s degree from Lewis University in Illinois and received his masters and doctorate degrees in Physics from the University of Denver, Colorado. He previously served as a member of the Advisory Board for the State of Colorado Center for Revolutionary Solar Photoconversion and was chair of the Steering Committee, as well as chairman of the board of directors of the Colorado Advanced Materials Institute.

“As business aviation and defense markets envision solar energy as a complement to traditional power sources, with purposeful integration into systems and structures, numerous performance advantages can be realized,” says Armstrong. “Ascent Solar and Bye Aerospace are uniquely positioned in these markets,” he believes.

“Clean energy provided by thin-film PV technology is critical to the performance of several of Bye Aerospace’s internal programs, including the solar-electric hybrid Silent Guardian unmanned aerial vehicle and the StarLight solar-electric powered airship,” notes the firm’s chairman & CEO George Bye.

Tags: Ascent Solar CIGS

Visit: www.ByeAerospace.com

Visit: www.AscentSolar.com