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Publish Date : 06-Jan-2014

Ascent Solar Technologies Inc., has declared that it has inked a definitive agreement to set up a joint venture unit with the Government of the Municipal City of Suqian in the Chinese Jiangsu Province.

As part of this deal, Suqian will offer about $32.5m in cash plus provide about 331,000-sq-ft of factory & office space in the Suqian Economic and Industrial Development Science Park for a five-year period for free. It will present further incentives too.

The new JV will create a 100-MW plant by six years to make proprietary thin-film Copper-Indium-Gallium-Selenium (CIGS) photovoltaic modules on flexible polyimide and related consumer goods of Ascent.

The US-based firm develops and makes advanced, flexible thin-film photovoltaic modules, integrated into off-grid applications and it EnerPlex series of consumer goods.

Ascent will buy the facility by five years at the preliminary construction cost and will also have the option to buy Suqian's stake in the JV at 1.5-fold of cash price of Suqian after five years.

As part of the project's Phase- 1, Ascent and Suqian will spend about $1.6m and about $4.8m respectively to set up the JV and they will own stakes of 25% and 75% respectively in the new entity.

Suqian this year will pump the rest of the pledged $32.5m and Ascent will put in its proprietary technology and intellectual property, plus specific equipment from its Colorado plant. This will help the US firm to boost its JV stake increasingly to as much as 80%. The JV is likely to start operation of a nonstop production facility of 25-MW capacity and associated consumer goods within Q1, 2016.

The President & CEO of Ascent - Victor Lee remarked, "The signing of this definitive agreement is a strong endorsement of Ascent's industry leading flexible CIGS technology."

"This partnership enables us to accelerate our transformational consumer-centric strategy with the EnerPlex consumer brand and specialty off-grid applications given China's huge and growing consumer base and readily available contract manufacturers."

Welcoming the Municipal City of Suqian's partnership with Ascent, Governor Lan Shao Min revealed, "The Suqian Government is fully committed to this partnership and shall provide the utmost support and incentives to Ascent."

"We are pleased with progressing our alliance with Suqian. The funding and other subsidies will enable Ascent to develop the scale of manufacturing needed to bring the cost of CIGS down substantially, and provide product for the large demand we expect to see in the next few years. The combination of cost reduction and high margin EnerPlex products along with other specialty market applications will enable Ascent to transition to its next stage as a high-growth company. The alliance with Suqian will provide a means for Ascent to build positive cash flow from numerous sources," stated Ascent Chairman Dr. Amit Kumar.

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