Ascent Solar (ASTI) which develops the flexible, thin film CIGS solar modules, has announced this morning it has reached an important milestone on the path to certification of its product.  In internal testing, its flexible packaging solution successfully passed heat testing of 1000 hours at 85% humidity and 85 degrees C which meets the guidelines set forth by IEC 61646 standards for thin film solar modules. 

CEO Farhad Moghadam of ASTI said, “This is a breakthrough development not just for Ascent Solar but also for the advancement of flexible CIGS technology and the differentiating capabilities it brings to the market. We are very proud of this achievement which now sets the stage for certification of our products by external agencies. This is also well timed to meet the requirements of our initial production from the 30 MW high volume manufacturing plant scheduled to commence at the beginning of 2010.”

Shares of ASTI are up about 5% in premarket trading and appear to be finding good support at the 200 day moving average.