US-based Ascent Solar is racing to use its thin film solar panels in order to reach off grid users. There are about 1.6 billion people living in areas off the grid, and 500,000 have cellphones, according to a study for GSM Association, which represents international mobile phone companies using the GSM technology.
Ascent’s panels are made of a razor-thin layer of copper, indium and gallium selenide — known as CIGS — on a plastic base. They are lightweight and, unlike glass- or silicon-based solar panels, not easily breakable. Ascent has already developed a prototype for a 38 centimeter by 15 centimeter panel with a USB port for charging a cell phone. The GSM Association study also estimates that the world market for mobile chargers is at $2.3 billion.
In March, Ascent signed a development agreement with Kirloskar Integrated Technologies Ltd. to develop off-grid, solar-panel products and markets in India. The company has a contract to provide 30,700 modules to Spanish Fork, Utah-based Provo Craft to be used as chargers to a portable battery.
“It is an energy nobody understands. Nobody knows the size of the market, but it will be big,” said Farhad Moghadam, Ascent’s CEO.
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