Ascent Solar Technologies Inc of Thornton, CO, USA, which makes lightweight, flexible copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS) thin-film photovoltaic modules integrated into off-grid applications and its EnerPlex series of consumer products, says that it has attained a key milestone for its China joint venture.
In December 2013, Ascent and the Suqian Municipality of Jiangsu Province agreed to create a joint venture to build a manufacturing facility in China, in which Suqian would provide a cash injection of $32.5m, as well as 5-years’ free usage of the newly built manufacturing facility along with a 5-year tax holiday and significant trade incentives. Ascent would provide proprietary technology, equipment and expertise to operate the plant as well as a nominal amount of cash. Ascent’s ownership in the JV would progressively grow up to 80% of the JV after all of these items are completed.
Ascent has now officially been granted the Business License as well as the Certificate of Approval for Establishment of Enterprises with Foreign Investment in the People’s Republic of China. These documents were the main gating factors for starting the operations of the JV. Now, several activities will start concurrently, including the cash injection by Suqian into the JV and the transfer of proprietary technology and under-utilized equipment by Ascent. As announced on 23 June, Suqian has ascribed a value of RMB400m ($77m) to Ascent’s proprietary technology, representing 48% of Ascent’s required contribution to the JV. Ascent expects that certain components of the JV factory will be in operation by the end of first-quarter 2015.
“We are pleased to have this approval from the appropriate government agencies, which has gone through a stringent process including lengthy feasibility studies and environmental impact assessments,” says Ascent’s president & CEO Victor Lee. “As we build and transfer much of our manufacturing operations to Suqian, we expect to dramatically reduce our production costs, logistics costs, and overhead costs among others, enabling meaningful improvements in margin as we ramp up the production capacity,” he adds. “The factory also provides close proximity to the region exhibiting tremendous growth for consumer electronic products like EnerPlex.”
