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Ascent Solar Technologies, Inc. Completes First Delivery of New, Increased Efficiency Material for Lifecycle Performance Capabilities Testing in Space Environments
THORNTON, Colo., Dec. 18, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ascent Solar Technologies, (Nasdaq: ASTI) (“ASTI” or the “Company”), the leading U.S. innovator in the
About this update from Ascent Solar Technologies, Inc
[{"type":"text","content":"THORNTON, Colo., Dec. 18, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ascent Solar Technologies, (Nasdaq: ASTI) (“ASTI” or the “Company”), the leading U.S. innovator in the design and manufacture of featherweight, flexible, and durable CIGS thin-film photovoltaic (PV) solutions, announced today that the Company has completed the first delivery of its new, increased efficiency material for further testing. This initial evaluation is the first in a campaign of ongoing high-fidelity lifecycle testing to simulate decades of continued operations in space, informing the Company’s iterative development paths to even higher efficiencies. Customers have chosen to fly Ascent’s Plug & FlyTM arrays due to their requiring only a fraction of the mass and volume to produce the same power as alternatives. These weight and volumetric efficiencies are further bolstered by Ascent’s recent efficiency breakthroughs, enabling spacecraft to fly with even less dead weight, and potentially even downsize to a smaller launch rideshare slot. The planned tests for which Ascent is currently manufacturing products will indicate just how much less area of solar arrays will be needed to generate the end of life (EOL) power that each space mission requires. This forthcoming test campaign will also allow Ascent to further refine its products to be even more resilient and longer-lived in the space environment. “Having our technology perform better than expected on the ISS through NASA’s MISSE-X experiment demonstrates the robustness of our CIGS PV in the space environment,” said Paul Warley, CEO of Ascent Solar Technologies. “Our objective with the upcoming series of long-duration simulated tests is to quantify the degradation rate of Ascent’s products over the course of even the most demanding space missions that require consistent power generation for decades at a time. The results of these tests stand to verify and validate that Ascent’s products save dollars and kilograms for the missions of today, and begin enabling the spacecraft of the future.” The space environment in the orbits around which satellites operate is an off-worldly, harsh landscape that deteriorates their ability to properly function over time. Satellite electronic systems are especially vulnerable to the vacuum temperature extremes of space and the doses of radiation received as spacecraft circle the Earth or v...