India’s National Solar Mission continues to encourage an inflow of solar investments. Ascent Solar Technologies, a developer of flexible thin-film solar modules, has revealed that it has signed a Strategic Alliance Agreement with India’s Kirloskar Integrated Technologies to integrate, market and distribute Ascent Solar’s flexible CIGS photovoltaic modules into products designed to address multiple market opportunities in this Asian country.

According to a press release issued by Ascent Solar, target markets include defence, consumer portable power, off grid rural power solutions and hybrid solar and diesel generation back up power systems. Phase two of the agreement provides for the establishment of a complete backend module assembly plant in India, while the third and final phase of the contact is designed to expand production in India to include complete end to end module manufacturing. This agreement results from the collaboration achieved thus far under a memorandum of understanding signed in September of 2009 between the two companies.

“Kirloskars’s vision is to provide decentralised sustainable solutions based on renewable resources. Having successfully established energy solutions using technologies like anaerobic digestion of organic waste and non-edible vegetable oil and biodiesel, we were in search of appropriate partner for solar photovoltaics which can compliment Kirloskar’s strength as a leader in distributed power generation,” said L.A. Joshi, CEO of Kirloskar. “We are pleased to have Ascent as our partner in the endeavor to harness the very large solar energy potential related to off-grid and on-grid applications, by taking advantage of the favourable policies of the Indian government. We truly believe that the leading-edge technology of Ascent and the synergy in our strategies will help us establish a leadership position in PV markets in India.”

Ascent Solar’s 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, and its President and CEO, Farhad Moghadam, believes Kirloskar is an ideal partner for development of multiple market opportunities in a rapidly advancing country like India.

Kirloskar is part of the Kirloskar Group, founded in 1888, one of India’s premier industrial and engineering conglomerates. It operates in the area of green technologies and has intentions to form further strategic alliances in fuel cells, on-site hydrogen production, wind energy, and hybrid solutions. The Kirloskar Group is an ISO certified diversified manufacturer of diesel engines for marine and power generation applications, diesel gensets, irrigation pumps, compressors, valves and automotive components, as well as an array of products for the oil and gas industries.

“We believe that Kirloskar has significant relationships and well established sales and marketing channels in key target markets for defence, space, consumer electronics and hybrid diesel generators,” he said, adding that his company is proud to continue its work with Kirloskar to address a wide array of growing off-grid and on-grid PV opportunities in the growing Indian market.

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