Prototype of Ascent's solar iPhone- charging case. (Provided by Ascent Solar)
About 16 miles separate the Abound Solar plant in Longmont and the Ascent Solar plant in Thornton, but the gulf between the two companies is much greater.
Solar-panel maker Abound this week is slated to file for bankruptcy, and its 125 workers will lose their jobs.
But Ascent â€" which has moved away from traditional solar panels and into consumer solar products â€" has increased its workforce by 50 percent in the past 14 months to 130 and plans additional hiring, according to company officials.
The tale of the two companies underscores the perils facing American solar-panel makers as the price of solar cells has plummeted.
Both Ascent and Abound make "thin-film" solar panels. Abound applied a micro-layer
Employees with Ascent Solar assemble small solar panels for their new product, an iPhone solar charger at the factory in Thorton on Monday. The new product has helped the struggling company, which has begun to hire new employees. The solar charger has a suggested retail price of $68. (Heather Rousseau, The Denver Post)
But since 2009, the price of silicon panels, driven by Chinese production, has dropped from $2.76 a watt to as low as 86 cents. In May, the U.S. Commerce Department imposed tariffs on Chinese solar panels after determining they were being sold below cost or "dumped" in the American market.
"Abound couldn't keep up," said Eric Wesoff, editor in chief at Greentech Media, which covers the renewable-energy industry.
The answer for Ascent is an iPhone case with one of its solar cells on the back â€" and similar consumer products.
"Ascent has had a technology looking for a product; maybe they've found it," said MJ Shiao, an analyst with GTM Research, a consulting group focused on renewable-energy markets.
To be sure, none of this means Ascent is ascending yet, as its stock has traded above the $1 minimum price set by the Nasdaq exchange just one day in the past 10 months, and it faces being delisted. Shares closed Friday at 79 cents.
"Ascent still has something to prove," said Adam Krop, a stock analyst with Ardour Capital Partners, after the June 6 announcement of the iPhone case.
Rooftop and utility-scale panels, such as Abound's, had become " a high-volume, low-return commodity," said Brad Kemp, Ascent's director of sales and marketing. "We don't want to be in that market."
Ascent scrapped its plan to produce 80 percent of its panels for the commercial rooftop market and started looking for other markets.
It explored off-grid applications for cellphone chargers in Africa, water pumps in rural India and portable chargers for the U.S. Army.
Along the way, the company faced its own crisis in 2011 as it cut 80 jobs and slashed expenses to preserve cash. Since then, it has increasingly focused on the consumer market.
Ascent is already selling panels to Samsonite for use in backpacks and bags, but the iPhone charger is the company's own product. Ascent also is working on a charger for Samsung's Galaxy S3 phone, Kemp said.
The iPhone charger weighs about 2.5 ounces. It has a battery that holds a charge equal to about two-thirds of the phone's battery and a solar panel.
Charging the phone with just the solar panel would take more than a day. "It tops off the battery," Kemp said. "It is an add-on."
It is first being marketed in South Korea and east Asia, Kemp said. The suggested retail price will be $68.
There also is a plan to license Ascent technology for a plant in Asia.
Ascent got a fresh infusion of cash last August. TFG Radiant, a joint venture between Radiant, a Chinese construction company, and Singapore-based Tertius Financial Group, bought 20 percent of the company for $7.4 million, or $1.15 a share â€" almost double the market price.
That is another big difference between Ascent and Abound. Ascent raised about $200 million in private money in three stock offerings. Its average share price has been $5.57.
Privately held Abound received a $400 million federal loan guarantee. California-based Solyndra, another privately held thin-film maker, got a $535 million loan guarantee.
Both are now bankrupt, leaving taxpayers liable for $535 million for Solyndra and up to $60 million for Abound, the U.S. Department of Energy said.
Ascent received a total of $3.4 million in government grant and research funds in 2011, according to company filings.
In January, TGF Radiant paid another $4 million to raise its stake to 41 percent. It will be the distributor for the iPhone chargers in Asia, and in June it placed an order for 50,000 panels for iPhone cases to be assembled in Asia.
Victor Lee, Tertius managing director, is now Ascent's chief executive and is serving without pay.
"It looks like the parent trying to help out its investment," said GTM's Shiao.
Analysts caution that Ascent's new cellphone case alone won't solve its challenges.
"This is no major line," said Ardour's Krop. "Still, it is a plus."
Shiao said the consumer solar-cell business represents a tiny fraction of the solar-panel market.
"It is a small market," he said, "and Ascent isn't the only company trying to get into it."
Mark Jaffe: 303-954-1912 or mjaffe@denverpost.com
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