Bye Aerospace just signed a memorandum of understanding with Ascent Solar Technologies for the development of thin-film solar technologies that could be used in aviation. Bye Aerospace intends to start testing Ascent’s thin-film PV technologies in aircraft by the end of the year.

In a company press release, Dr. Joseph Armstrong, Chief Technical Officer of Ascent Solar, commented on the announcement, saying

“Applications such as those being developed by Bye Aerospace are able to utilize the many advantages of our high-performance CIGS on polyimide PV technology such as monolithic integration, low mass and flexibility for conformal installation. These advantages allow our product to adapt to many applications, from aerospace to building integrated PV (BIPV), portable power and consumer electronics, and our work with Bye represents one of many development agreements we have to meet customer needs. Products to support Bye Aerospace will be manufactured from our existing 1.5MW production line.”