Littleton, CO-based Ascent Solar Technologies, Inc. (www.ascentsolar.com), will use two General Vacuum Equipment OptiLab roll-to-roll vacuum sputter coaters from the Bobst Group (www.bobstgroup.com/general) to develop its advanced photovoltaic (solar cell) flexible films for solar-energy applications. The equipment, the first installations in North America, will go online later this year, Bobst says. The machines will be used in multilayer deposition of metallic and transparent conducting oxides (TCOs) on various types of plastic film.

GVE is one of four preferred suppliers recently annoounced by AST, which was created in 2005 to develop thin-film monolithically-integrated CIGS p. 16 p.14 (copper-indium-gallium-diselenide) flexible photovoltaic modules on plastic substrates for use in generating solar power. The four suppliers will supply the roll-to-roll manufacturing process tools required in its production. AST will use a plastic film coated with thin-film PV to transform natural sunlight into electricity. The lighter-weight solar substrates manufactured reportedly will be more flexible and affordable than traditional rigid solar panels.