Mar 4 2011
Ascent Solar Technologies, a flexible thin film solar module developer, has declared that a notice has been sent to the company from the US Department of Energy (DOE) Loan Guarantee Program’s office (LGPO) stating that the loan guarantee application filed by Ascent for a 150 MW FAB3 project has been selected to go to the LGPO’s Due Diligence Review Stage.
The Project has a total value of $375 million and they had applied for $275 million under the loan guarantee program.
Currently, LGPO is conducting deliberations with Ascent, wherein the negotiations for a potential loan guarantee, compliance to the National Environmental Policy Act, along with other issues essential for LGPO to issue a conditional commitment are being considered.
The project would construct a new 150 MW for manufacturing the company’s monolithically integrated and flexible thin film copper-indium-gallium-diselenide (CIGS) PV modules. It would utilize the technological advances, which are in place in Ascent’s already existing manufacturing plants and concentrate on large volume markets such as building integrated PV (BIPV) and building applied PV (BAPV) operations.
The Application’s advancement to the Due Diligence review stage does not necessarily mean that the FAB3 project would be definitely approved for a conditional commitment by LGPO or that it would be offered a term sheet. The Diligence process could be stopped at any stage if it is found that the LGPO’s requirements such as the procedures, policies and financial requirements of the DOE are not being met by the project. The project has to begin construction work prior to the financial closing, which has to take place on or before 30th September, 2011 in order to qualify for Section 1705 of Title XVII’s appropriated credit subsidy.