Ascent Solar’s modules will be integrated into a variety of products for use in defence/disaster relief and other specialty markets.
“We are pleased to announce that FTL Solar is a US distributor for Ascent's light weight photovoltaic (PV) modules for fabric awnings, airbeams, tents, tensile structures, sailboat sails, tarps and umbrellas,” says FTL Solar CEO Tony Saxton.
Generating energy and providing shelter
FTL Solar's products will be integrated with Ascent's high output, lightweight and flexible modules to provide “optimal means for capturing electricity from sunlight, as well as providing second functions such as shelter”.
“We have hit the market with FTL Solar's PowerMod™ tents with Ascent Solar PV modules 'outside' for military and tent rental industry sales, and with FTL Solar's PowerFold™ hand-held battery chargers for military and consumer sales,” explains Saxton. “We see this as the beginning of an epochal change across all of the fabric structure industries. We envision that the fabric structure industry is going to become renewable electricity providers in the future in addition to being the flexible fabric product providers that they have traditionally been."
Under the terms of the agreement, FTL Solar has committed to minimum purchases of $6.5 million of high efficiency flexible CIGS photovoltaic two metre and premier modules during the three-year contract period. Ascent Solar is scheduled to begin shipments to FTL Solar for market seeding of emerging market opportunities with their lightweight, solar-integrated tensile fabric product line. This specialty product line is intended to serve defence/disaster relief and the portable power segments that include awnings, fabric airbeams, fabric automobile covers, sailboat sails, tarps, tents, and umbrellas.
Defence/disaster relief
“FTL Solar has designed a world-class, lightweight, solar-integrated tensile fabric product line. This contract represents sales velocity for specialty products that require certain customisation and affirms our ability to demonstrate our breadth of integration,” adds Farhad Moghadam, Ascent Solar’s President and CEO. “Ascent’s recent product certification under MIL-STD 810G for defence applications has opened up market potential in the emerging defence/disaster relief opportunity with fabric integrated portable solar applications for both tent and personal portable power integration. FTL Solar is at the forefront of changing the way solar can be utilized on a daily basis by defense, disaster relief agencies and consumers alike. Enabling products to be integrated with our unique lightweight CIGS photovoltaic modules is the foundation of Ascent’s market penetration of specialty products.”
FTL Solar’s unique patent-pending products are the first and only pre-fabricated, mass produced PV tensile structures in the world. FTL Solar structures integrate thin film PV with super strength fabric to crate architecturally refined solar canopies, arrays and enclosures that turn sunlight into electricity.
For its part, Ascent Solar develops thin-film PV modules with substrate materials that can be more flexible and affordable than most traditional solar panels. Ascent Solar modules can be directly integrated into standard building materials, space applications, consumer electronics for portable power or configured as stand-alone modules for large scale terrestrial deployment.
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