News: Photovoltaics
20 June 2025
Ascent raises CIGS PV production-scale efficiency record from 14% to 15.7%
Ascent Solar Technologies Inc of Thornton, CO, USA says that its flexible thin-film copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS) photovoltaic (PV) technology has reached record energy conversion efficiency of 15.7% (AM0) at production scale. The achievement aligns with the firm’s previously announced 2025 strategy, which aimed to continue improving on its thin-film PV’s material quality, technological efficiency and production design optimization to increase the applicability of the technology in the space market.
Using the Titan, a module about 1ft2 in size, Ascent can now produce 15.7W in power per unit. These modules are about 0.03mm in thickness, weigh just over 8g, and have a power density of 1960W/kg before encapsulation.
Ascent says that its engineering and production teams have consistently achieved increases in device efficiency and overall performance since September 2023. In the last 18 months, Ascent has reached significant milestones in efficiency testing, with the latest achievement of 15.7% representing a significant increase from Q1/2024’s 14%, Q4/2023’s 13.3%, and Q3/2023’s 11.6%.
“These continued efficiency improvements for our CIGS arrays are the direct result of our US-based manufacturing team’s tireless focus on process improvement and advanced device engineering,” says CEO Paul Warley. “The jump in device efficiency we’ve experienced over the past two years has dramatically enhanced our technology’s readiness for the space market, positioning it as an ideal solar material choice for satellite power systems and other spacecraft.”
Ascent gains order to revise space PV module design for receiving beamed power
