3SOF

Quote from: la-onda on January 15, 2008, 08:03:15 PM
down with all other solar stocks 
still holding

Yep, solar is down and ASTI isn't immune. In my assessment of reality, especially future reality, it isn't the state of the solar industry on a month to month basis that will make ASTI be worth billions of dollars or not. It is the specific company ability to execute on its plans or not.

And the plan seems on track. The company has the capital and technology to execute.

I'll hold ASTI.

 





Wind, Solar Power Gain Users
Supportive Policies Aid
Greener Energy Sources;
New Jobs in Thousands
By REBECCA SMITH
January 18, 2008; Page A6

Two forms of renewable energy -- wind and solar power -- enjoyed substantial growth last year, spurred by federal and state energy policies and incentives that support green energy sources.

The U.S. wind-power industry grew in size by 45% last year, adding a record 5,244 megawatts of capacity that amounted to a third of all new generating capacity built in the U.S. in 2007, according to the American Wind Energy Association. General Electric Co. led the pack as nation's largest supplier.


The solar industry grew at a similar clip, though from a much smaller base, adding more than 300 megawatts of capacity last year, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association. Additions are expected to roughly double this year. Large commercial solar installations now exceed home installations in California, reversing a long-term pattern and likely a bellwether for other states.

The bulking up in the solar industry will become more pronounced as utility-scale projects get built. More than 3,000 megawatts of giant concentrating solar projects have been announced for vast stretches of the desert Southwest, to be completed between 2009 and 2014 with utilities buying the electric output.

The wind-power trade group said seven new factories opened in 2007, and it believes there are close to 20,000 jobs now in wind energy in the U.S., with nearly half added in the past year. The renewable-energy sector expects to add tens of thousands of jobs in the next decade.

The wind and solar industries are being lifted by federal policies that encourage clean energy sources and are backed by state and federal tax credits and other incentives. In half of the states, utilities are required to increase their purchases of renewable energy to lessen dependence on fossil fuels that contribute to climate change.

One worry for the sector is the expiration, at the end of 2008, of certain federal tax credits that have spurred development.

Although much of the wind and solar generating equipment installed in the U.S. is imported, more firms are building manufacturing and assembly facilities in the U.S.. "People see the U.S. as the next strong market," said Lisa Frantzis, managing director for renewable energy at Navigant Consulting Inc.

Germany's Schott AG said this week it will build a solar factory in Albuquerque, N.M., that will employ 350 people by 2009 and increase to about 1,500 workers in future years, a $500 million investment. The 200,000-square-foot plant will produce solar modules for giant, utility-scale solar installations. The company presently does production in Billerica, Mass.

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson said his state offered "close to $20 million" in incentives to attract Schott. "The Southwest is going to become the laboratory for clean tech jobs in renewable energy and energy efficiency," he said.

New Mexico has offered incentives to firms paying above-average wages. Mark Finocchario, president of Schott's U.S. division, said the Albuquerque jobs would pay "at least the prevailing wage" and would include health benefits.

Write to Rebecca Smith at [email protected]

RELATED ARTICLES AND BLOGS

awesome article

CIGS thin-film sector grows, blends hype, promise: Part II, Ascent Solar and ISET          
Jan 21, 2008

Although they both participate in the emerging copper indium gallium (di)selenide (CIGS) thin-film photovoltaics sector, Ascent Solar Technology and International Solar Electric Technology (ISET) have at least as many differences between them as things in common.

Ascent's PV roots go back to work begun at ITN Energy Systems in the early 1990s, while ISET first hung out its shingle in March 1985. ITN created Ascent in 2005, and the new venture has been publicly traded since 2006, while ISET has been and remains fiercely independent. Ascent's process technology uses vacuum-based coevaporation and sputtering, yet ISET favors a nonvacuum ink-print/selenization approach. Both use molybdenum for back contacts and zinc oxide for their front contacts, although ISET adds ITO to the front. ISET's current manufacturing strategy employs batch processing on glass, while Ascent pursues a roll-to-roll production scheme, with flexible plastic as its substrate of choice. Ascent is based in Littleton, Colorado; ISET calls Chatsworth home, in L.A.'s San Fernando Valley.

Ascent and ISET do share one common value: they passionately believe in the enormous potential and importance of solar power and thin-film CIGS' place in the promised PV land of <$1-per-watt grid-parity cost.

Neither company has sought the media publicity spotlight, unlike Nanosolar, HelioVolt, and other CIGS peers, so they've been left out of many discussions and coverage of the thin-film PV arena. But that doesn't seem to bother either company too much (well, maybe a little). "Until you're producing product that shows viability on the commercial scale, you don't have anything," said Brian Blackman, Ascent's director of investor relations. ISET's head honcho Vijay Kapur, a 33-year-plus PV veteran and outspoken champion of solar energy, put it this way: "This kind of serious business can't be done on hype.... I'll make noise at the appropriate time. When we move product, you'll hear about me."

"There's lots of misunderstanding and confusion out there, so we try and be as transparent as possible," explained Blackman. "It's all about keeping the transparency open going forward, whether it's favorable or not." This commitment to openness, although not all-encompassing (he wouldn't divulge certain particulars of Ascent's film stack, for example), still shows up in the level of manufacturing and process granularity that the company provides in its latest SEC 10-Q statement, a far cry from the paucity of information offered by DayStar in its filings or most privately held CIGS companies.

A read-through of Ascent's SEC filing (filed after the end of 3Q07), especially the several pages in the section titled "Management's Discussion and Analysis or Plan of Operation," reveals a fair amount of specifics around the company's goal of being "the first company to manufacture large, monolithically integrated roll format PV modules in commercial quantities that use a highly efficient thin-film copper-indium-gallium-diselenide absorbing layer on a flexible high-temperature plastic substrate." When/if Ascent perfects its monolithic-integration module manufacturing approach ("monolithic" as in individual cells do not have to be connected manually), not only will the PV rolls coming off the line "be identical for every market, but multiple modules can be printed on each roll to serve a multitude of applications," according to a company investor presentation.

Blackman told me that "there have been no changes to our stated progress," with all equipment delivered and installed in Ascent's pilot facility. "We're running one process at a time at this point." Using roll-to-roll rapid prototyping (with 100-ft-long plastic rolls) and material flow techniques developed in 2006, the team is working to qualify and integrate the line and have it operational by the end of 1Q08. The second quarter will be spent optimizing the toolset and achieving a low-rate production flow and therefore moving closer to Ascent's primary near-term objective: to "enable an increase in manufacturing yield and module efficiencies to support full-scale manufacturing at the 1.5 MW level," according to the document. If the initial milestones are met, the IR director "expects to see nominal revenues in 2008."

"Performance on the pilot production line should prove out the manufacturing processes and product certification, and provide product to support market development that should enable us to transition into large full-scale, commercial manufacturing of our CIGS PV products," Ascent's 10-Q states. "Scale-up to the 100-MW level and beyond will first involve the successful deployment of the 1.5-MW production line in 2008, followed by a planned scale-up to a 25-MW production line in 2009. The 25-MW scale production line is envisioned to become our manufacturing template for large-scale commercial production. Increasing production to 100 MW and beyond will then involve deployment of multiple 25-MW production lines."

Blackman described the envisioned modular 25-MW lines as "comparable to a cookie cutter," which can be rapidly scaled up to a 100-MW-capacity facility, the first of which will be built "somewhere in Colorado." In addition to dialing in process variables, ramping to high yields, and driving up module conversion efficiencies from the current 8% to over 10%, the company says the biggest challenge will be transitioning to one-third-meter-wide plastic rolls for the 1.5-MW line and then to one-meter-wide rolls when the line is scaled up to 25 MW. With significant know-how and investment from ITN and use of its R&D lab, the company plans to develop a prototype CIGS deposition tool that can handle the meter-wide material and allow the rapid evaluation and testing of the larger-area deposition sources and process control system is also part of Ascent's 2008 game plan, in preparation for its 25-MW line integration by the end of 2009, according to company documents.

Ascent's plans may seem quite cautious, but Janco Partners' Vijay Singh, in his recent report on the company, supports the approach. "While this may appear painfully conservative, we believe the growth roadmap is prudent considering the early stage of the technology development and should help the company avoid making more expensive mistakes during the commercial production stage."

The Brise Soleil shading devices (in development), which integrates the Hydro Building aluminum systems with Ascent's flexible CIGS modules. (Photo courtesy of Ascent)

The investment researcher also praises Ascent for its strategic partnerships alliances. "Strong partnerships---Ascent's alliances with ITN Energy (founding partner) and Norsk Hydro (strategic investor own)---are significant competitive advantages. Ascent has exclusive access to ITN's proprietary process and control technologies utilized in the production of CIGS PV module," what Blackman calls the "secret sauce."

"With a significant presence in the global building systems market," Singh continues, "Norsk is likely to be an important distribution partner." Hydro, which owns nearly a quarter of Ascent's stock, will provide channel access for the start-up's flexible products to the gonna-be-huge building-integrated PV market.

A supportive founding company and huge multinational corporate investor may not be part of the story at ISET, but when cofounder/president/CEO Vijay Kapur claims that "the genesis of CIGS took place in his company," he's not really exaggerating. From his time at Stanford Research Institute and Arco Solar to the first two decades of ISET's existence, he and his collaborators have been involved in much of the groundbreaking R&D in various PV areas, especially CIS/CIGS. "We developed hundreds of new technologies, many of which are used today," according to Kapur. Ex-ISETers are scattered through the ranks of companies such as Nanosolar, Solopower, Showa, and Honda Soltec.

After griping about the lack of recognition of ISET, "that for more than 22 years has been working on CIGS all along," Kapur then pointed the finger directly at Nanosolar, a company with whom he has had dealings with since 2001. "They make a lot of noise...they are desperately trying to copy ISET," noting that a "very low-cost CIGS process" using printable methods was developed at ISET during the late 1990s and that his company had a "specific goal of printable CIGS" since its earliest days. Other, now-expired patents from Kapur's collaborations cover plating, sputtering, and other methods for processing CIS/CIGS cells.

The National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) has been a staunch supporter of ISET through the years, Kapur told me. The company has survived on other government contracts, R&D projects, low-volume manufacturing of custom modules and systems, and a variety of service offerings. But after years of being "below the radar" and little of no venture capital support, ISET's main man told me "we will have product this year."

The company hired chipmaking veteran Richard Kimmerle as its VP of manufacturing last March and is moving into a 300%+ larger space in Chatsworth, where the first production line will be built. Kapur mentioned that once he gets the final permits signed, then things will really get rolling at ISET's new plant, within about three months.

He's also seeking a second round of financing, although he has sharp words for the VC community, whose business model he says is "broken.... We're not an overnight startup. The VC guys have no sense of how to work with folks who've worked long and hard on something. I didn't want to give up control." Yet certain potential investors "are talking very big, once the pilot line is perfected. Think about 100s of megawatts---money is not a problem."

"We will have a pilot with 3 MW or 1 MW per shift," he explained. "Once the pilot is set up, the process characterized and streamlined, we will set up the team and then a 100 MW line. The line concept is a very simple, modular concept," with low capital costs, high material utilization, good material control, and high process yields. ISET will not employ roll-to-roll manufacturing yet, choosing batch methods for CIGS-on-glass for the time being, according to Kapur. "No company has an entirely roll-to-roll process for making solar cells."

Of course, the challenge for ISET after doing it in the lab for 22+ years, is making the transition to commercial production. Kapur acknowledges the road won't be easy. "How do you make square miles of the stuff with proper composition and control?" Still, with his optimism and vision, he sees no reason that his nonvacuum ink-based process technology cannot result in "finished 10% conversion efficiency modules on the factory floor---for less than 65 cents per watt. The efficiency of CIGS will be scaled up to 15%, and then the price could drop below 50 cents per watt." He sees the vertical integration of glass factories with CIGS and even solar cells one day costing out to 40 cents per watt.

Kapur sums up the challenges ahead, for ISET, Ascent, and the other CIGS start-ups. "The technology's there, now execution is the issue." The next few years will reveal which thin-film PV players have those execution skills and ramp to volume production, possibly following in the footsteps of CdTe TFPV pioneer First Solar---and which companies will become footnotes to the evolving story of solar power's march to grid parity and planetary ubiquity.

http://www.fabtech.org/content/view/6001/

Indeed la-onda, great article. He gets most of his information from the 10-Q, but also spoke with ASTI's CEO which is always interesting.

Everything remains on path, plenty of reasons to continue holding ASTI for the long term, even though there are some technical challenges ahead (to the chart, which is always very short term oriented and therefore irrelevant for long term investors).

Quote from: David Randolph on March 15, 2007, 11:37:01 AM

Quote from: rudynostalgia on March 15, 2007, 11:31:49 AM
So far today ASTI  is down .31 and DSTI is up .39   When DSTI gets its financing, it will make a major move 'cause it has some large contracts in hand. Also, Hillary didn't visit that plant twice this year for her health.

Ahhhh, I knew you would come up on me with intraday results

In 6 months we'll compare ASTI and DSTI and you'll tell me which one was the best.

Good luck on both!

ASTI won that race 

Quote from: tokyopua on February 07, 2008, 03:52:57 AM

Quote from: David Randolph on March 15, 2007, 11:37:01 AM

Quote from: rudynostalgia on March 15, 2007, 11:31:49 AM
So far today ASTI  is down .31 and DSTI is up .39   When DSTI gets its financing, it will make a major move 'cause it has some large contracts in hand. Also, Hillary didn't visit that plant twice this year for her health.

Ahhhh, I knew you would come up on me with intraday results

In 6 months we'll compare ASTI and DSTI and you'll tell me which one was the best.

Good luck on both!

ASTI won that race 

Great recollection Tokyopua

Indeed, since March 15, 2007, ASTI is up 78%, while DSTI is down 33%.

Just two sad notes:

1) The Main isn't winning 78% on ASTI and,
2) Rudynostalgia is no longer with us because he wanted to invest solely for short term gains (and losses).

There was a press release out from ASTI today:

• Ascent Solar Set to Establish New World Headquarters and Production Facility
Business Wire (Mon 6:00am)

There's nothing new here besides that now they're providing a target date for achieving 100 MW of production capacity, which is 2011.

If everything goes as planned, by then ASTI will surely be a multi-billion dollar company, compared to the current $161 M.

I'll keep holding ASTI for the long term.

from Denver Post:

Solar company on the rise
The producer of flexible photovoltaic film will boost its space and plans to triple its workforce by the end of '08.

By Andy Vuong, The Denver Post


Ascent Solar Technologies is powering up in a big way.

The developer of photovoltaic film is moving its headquarters to a 120,000-square-foot office and manufacturing building in Thornton as part of a major expansion plan that will provide a boost to Colorado's burgeoning renewable energy industry. Currently based in a 15,000-square-foot facility in Littleton, Ascent plans to expand its workforce from 35 to 100 by the end of the year and up to 300 by 2010. The company bought the Thornton plant, located near Interstate 25 and 120th Avenue, for $5.5 million and will spend about $4 million refurbishing it, said Ashutosh Misra, senior vice president for operations.

Another $65 million to $75 million will be spent over the next two years to outfit the plant with equipment to manufacture the company's solar modules, Misra said.

Ascent produces thin-film modules that are flexible, unlike traditional solar panels.

Norsk Hydro, a Norwegian provider of building materials and a large investor in Ascent, in September unveiled a curtain that uses the company's technology to generate electricity while providing shade. That announcement helped Ascent's stock surge from about $2 to $20 in 2007, making it Colorado's top-performing stock for the year. The shares have given some of the gains back this year and closed Friday at $14.24.

Ascent chief executive Matt Foster said the company is in discussions with other customers and corporate partners that will use its solar technology, but he didn't disclose specifics. The company said it hopes to produce its first commercial product by the end of 2009.

"The state has been a leader in the United States for moving forward legislation that will drive renewable energy significantly in Colorado," Foster said. "Being a manufacturer here, we will not only be able to support deployments in Colorado, but also be able to get our products deployed throughout the world."

Among other initiatives, Gov. Bill Ritter created a Clean Energy Fund to help grow Colorado's renewable-energy sector. Though Ascent didn't receive a grant from the fund, the state provided loan assistance for the plant purchase and will offer the company new-employee training incentives.

"We are convinced Colorado has an opportunity to be a world-class center in the development of this industry," Don Elliman, director of the state Office of Economic Development and International Trade, said in a statement. "Ascent Solar's decision to build here is both a testament to that potential and a terrific step forward for the industry in the state."

Ascent, which plans to formally announce the expansion today, expects to move into the new headquarters this fall.

Wow.  This industry is taking off.  ASTI could be your most promising long-term pick, next to SDTH perhaps.

http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUKN1332519220080213?rpc=44

Quote from: buddjas1 on February 13, 2008, 11:45:08 AM
Wow.  This industry is taking off.  ASTI could be your most promising long-term pick, next to SDTH perhaps.

http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUKN1332519220080213?rpc=44

Indeed, FSLR shot up 30% yesterday ...



... after reporting better than expected results:

• UPDATE - First Solar beats forecasts, shares soar
at Reuters (Wed 10:56am)

More information here:

• First Solar Profits Surge
at TheStreet.com (Wed 6:04pm)

«Ahearn also said the company sold 75.8 megawatts worth of modules for an average sale price of $2.60 per watt in the fourth quarter as "robust" demand continued to exceed supply.»

75.8 megawatts in one quarter equals 303.2 in a full year and this translates into a $17.81 B market cap for FSLR. ASTI is setting up to sell 100 MW in 2011, so, with all rest equal, it would translate to a $5.87 B market cap when 2011 closes. This compares to the current $196 M market cap.

Of course, a lot of things will change in the solar energy industry between now and 2011 (maybe then the industry will be more mature and the valuation multiples will be less rich). Anyway, this is an indication of ASTI's potential appreciation, if the company executes as planned. 

I'll continue holding ASTI for the long term.

Looking at this from a US point of view,it's possible that one of that catalysts behind the rise of solar stocks is the real possibility of a Democratic president being elected in Nov. Both the candidates like alternative energy.

The Biggest Economic Opportunity of This Century
By Jack Uldrich February 14, 2008

Recommendation
Venture capitalists are people, just like you and me. They put their pants on one leg at a time and they're prone to making investing mistakes just like the rest of us. That said, it's hard to deny that some VCs are clearly better than others. John Doerr is one of Silicon Valley's more successful and higher-profile VCs, with big wins including early investments in Symantec, Amazon.com, and more recently, Google.

This success, I believe, gives his words some weight. So when he says that global warming is real and "cleantech" is "the biggest economic opportunity of this century," my ears -- and yours -- should perk up.

The future for cleantech
It's not that the idea of cleantech as a big investment opportunity is new. The Motley Fool, myself, and others have been writing about it for some time. Instead, it was Doerr's explanation of how cleantech can help address global warming that I found so interesting. He laid out four steps for solving global warming that, when viewed in aggregate, can provide investors with a useful framework for thinking about how to invest in cleantech.

First, Doerr said the U.S. government should adopt a mandatory goal of reducing greenhouse gas 25% by 2010. This is an ambitious goal and, in an election year, I don't think it's likely. Nevertheless, I do believe some controls are coming, and investors can profit by understanding which companies are getting ahead of the curve and positioning themselves to benefit from government mandates. For instance, I have written before about Duke Energy's willingness to embrace mandates and explained how this progressive position -- when backed with strategic investments in cleaner coal-burning technologies and large-scale carbon sequestration and alternative fuel energy projects -- could position it ahead of its peers if and when government mandates on carbon emissions are imposed. Other large companies, including Alcoa (NYSE: AA) and PG&E (NYSE: PCG), have joined in the calling for greater governmental involvement on the regulatory front.

Second, Doerr called for the adoption of renewable sources such as solar, wind power, and fuel cell technology. The first two are hardly bold calls, but investors should give serious consideration to investments such as Motley Fool Rule Breakers recommendation Suntech Power. Another company with growing solar resources worth considering is Ascent Solar  (Nasdaq: ASTI), which just announced its plans to increase production capacity to 100MW by 2011. In the wind field, Zoltek offers a unique way to profit from the growth of the sector; while in the long-beleaguered fuel cell sector, Ballard (Nasdaq: BLDP) announced plans yesterday to provide fuel cell modules to a line of New Flyer Industries shuttle buses.

Third, Doerr said the United States needs to reinvigorate its biofuels industry. To a degree, this is already happening. Archer Daniels Midland now has a 50-million-gallon facility in production and, last year, Imperial Renewables raised a substantial amount of venture capital to build a 100-million-gallon biodiesel facility. With the advent of tougher EPA regulations requiring cleaner-burning diesel -- which biodiesel meets -- the demand for biofuels could grow stronger in the near future. And both companies, by positioning themselves at the forefront of this biofuels "reinvigoration," could profit nicely from its expansion. This is also likely the reason that Chevron (NYSE: CVX) is now working with Solazyme to produce biodiesel from algae.

Another opportunity worth keeping an eye on is the area of hybrid technology. Companies such as A123 Systems, EEStor, and Altair are all continuing to make great strides in improving battery technology. On the automotive side, Daimler (NYSE: DAI) is aggressively moving to produce plug-in hybrids by the end of the decade.

Finally, Doerr said there needs to be more investment in technologies that can remove existing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. One interesting start-up to keep an eye on in this area is Global Research Technologies, but I would encourage investors to keep an eye on big boys such as Siemens (NYSE: SI). Cleaning up vast amounts of carbon dioxide is a big problem, and it could well take a large company to deliver the resources necessary to make a dent.

Invest intelligently
Investors looking for a more diversified approach to investing in renewable energy might want to consider the PowerShares WilderHill Clean Energy (PBW) exchange-traded fund. Alternatively, investors with a more conservative approach might want to look at a company like General Electric. While GE isn't a pure cleantech play, it recently announced a plan to increase by 50% -- to $6 billion -- the amount it invests annually in clean technologies. As a result, in the years ahead, investors can expect it to generate an increasing percentage of its revenue from alternative energies.

The bottom line is that, like Doerr, our Motley Fool Rule Breakers team believes cleantech will be big. And while there will be many technologies and companies taking part in the solution, Fools should be strategic about how they want to approach the opportunity. After all, just because the opportunity is large doesn't mean everyone's profits will be, too.

Quote from: soxguy on February 14, 2008, 08:53:02 AM
Looking at this from a US point of view,it's possible that one of that catalysts behind the rise of solar stocks is the real possibility of a Democratic president being elected in Nov. Both the candidates like alternative energy.

It's possible. But my view is that alternative energy won't need political support in the future, simple law of economics will make it thrive, since $oil is at $100 a barrel again and it will just end, someday.

There are many solar energy companies outthere these days. But just a few producing solar panels using thin film technologies. And just one ready to produce flexible thin film, roll to roll panels to be used in building materials. Just one has a partnership and is partially owned by a $100 B plus oil company.

And that's tiny ASTI, with a $200 M or so market cap.

You hold those shares for 5 years and don't let go of them whatever happens. This is our big long term winner.

ASTI: Short Interest UP 2.4% to 2.1M in Mid Feb 2008
Wednesday, February 27, 2008 16:16ET

According to new short interest data from NASDAQ, short interest for Ascent Solar Technologies, Inc. (NasdaqNM: ASTI) INCREASED 2.4% to 2,060,066 shares as reported in mid-February, 2008.
Based on ASTI's 20-day average daily share volume of 276,070, it would require approximately 8 day(s) of buying to cover this short interest.

&

BUYINS.NET: FRO, TLB, NGD, ASTI, CTIC, FOLD Have Been Added To Naked Short List Today
Wednesday, February 27, 2008 09:07ET

Ascent Solar Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: ASTI) a development stage company, engages in the commercialization of certain photovoltaic (PV) technology developed by ITN Energy Systems, Inc. for extraterrestrial, terrestrial, and near-space applications. Its PV modules use a thin-film copper-indium-gallium-diselenide absorbing layer on a flexible plastic substrate. The company was founded in 2005 and is based in Littleton, Colorado. With 11.28 million shares outstanding and 2.06 million shares declared short as of January 2008, there is a failure to deliver in shares of ASTI. According to quarterly data provided by the SEC, there were still 272,928 shares of ASTI that were failing-to-deliver as of September 28, 2007.

6:07AM Ascent Solar and ITOCHU to pursue strategic relationship (ASTI) 15.25 : Co and ITOCHU Corp of Japan announce that the companies will begin work toward the development of one or more strategic cooperation relationships in the following areas: 1) procurement of select machinery for Ascent Solar's planned 100 MW manufacturing facility; 2) sourcing of raw materials used for the manufacture of solar modules; 3) distribution of Ascent Solar future products in Japan and other parts of the world where ITOCHU is currently pursuing a number of solar installations; 4) managing future OEM relationships in Japan including the development of potential strategic partners engaged in the development of building integrated photovoltaic and electronic integrated photovoltaic products using Ascent Solar's future flexible CIGS solar modules.

Thanks for posting the news for ASTI BigSully1, which is BIG:

• Ascent Solar and ITOCHU Corporation to Pursue Strategic Relationship
Business Wire (Thu 6:00am)

This was probably the most important reason to why Norsk Hydro didn't increase its stake in ASTI to 35%. It was because Hydro wanted to control and have exclusive rights to ASTI's production, but management and other shareholders wanted to have more partners and remain independent.

According to ITOCHU's description, this company is as big as StatoilHydro, with $100 B in sales every year. It looks like a fantastic partner to ASTI.

I'll keep holding ASTI for the long term.