Photo voltaic panel manufacturing in Australia has reached a brand new zenith with a dedication by two business leaders to discover the chances of creating a commercial-scale superior photo voltaic panel manufacturing facility within the coronary heart of New South Wales coal nation.
From pv journal Australia
Australian vitality main AGL and photo voltaic cell expertise innovator and producer SunDrive Photo voltaic have signed a memorandum of understanding to discover the event of a commercial-scale PV manufacturing facility within the New South Wales (NSW) Hunter area.
The settlement follows Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s announcement of AUD 1 billion ($650 million) of subsidies, grants and different help to extend Australia’s function within the international photo voltaic manufacturing provide chain.
The Photo voltaic SunShot initiative is meant to supply help throughout the PV provide chain, together with the scaling up of module manufacturing capabilities and exploration of different areas of the availability chain the place grant funding may help kick-start the business.
The Australian Renewable Power Company (ARENA), which can ship this system, stated this might embrace polysilicon, ingots and wafers, cells, module meeting, and different elements of the photo voltaic provide chain, together with photo voltaic glass, superior deployment expertise, or different points recognized via business session.
SunDrive Chief Govt Officer Vince Allen welcomed the initiative, saying it’s a important day for the corporate, the Hunter Valley, and the nation.
“It’s an inflection level for turning our R&D into commercialisation and manufacturing, so sure, it’s a really thrilling second,” he stated. “Australia has led the world in photo voltaic innovation and in the present day’s $1 billion Sunshot announcement signifies that Australia can’t solely be a renewable vitality innovation powerhouse, but in addition a renewable vitality manufacturing powerhouse.”
SunDrive, which has developed the world’s most effective commercial-size photo voltaic cell and now plans to fabricate these cells, stated the proposed manufacturing facility can be situated on the renewable vitality hub AGL has deliberate for the positioning of the previous coal-fired Liddell energy station that was shut down in April 2023.
AGL has beforehand introduced plans to repurpose the present infrastructure on the website close to Muswellbrook within the Higher Hunter to help the development of recent era and storage infrastructure and already has approvals in place to construct a 500 MW / 1,000 MWh battery on the location.
Allen stated the first-generation photo voltaic panels manufactured on the Hunter Power Hub can be extra environment friendly that these at the moment used and inside a decade, much more superior.
“As we speak’s present business expertise is at its restrict by way of price, effectivity and materials use, and the expertise that now we have is our first era and we hope to have many extra generations and plan to journey that frontier of photo voltaic expertise wave,” he stated. “Inside 10 years, it’s very doubtless we’d be producing panels with over 30% effectivity which is much more environment friendly than in the present day’s present era of panels, as a result of there’s going to be a complete suite of expertise wanted to get the world from the place it’s now to greater than half of its vitality coming from photo voltaic.”
The AGL and SunDrive feasibility research will determine key infrastructure and engineering necessities, in addition to approvals and licences required for the event of the photo voltaic PV manufacturing facility.
If established, the ability is predicted to be the primary of its form in Australia with AGL to discover an settlement to purchase SunDrive panels for its clients.
AGL is a number one provider of photo voltaic to each business and industrial with 600,000 clients, each residential and enterprise, that use its photo voltaic companies.
AGL Managing Director and Chief Govt Officer Damien Nicks stated the imaginative and prescient for the Hunter Power Hub is to create a low-carbon built-in vitality hub, designed with round economic system ideas.
“It should deliver collectively industries that may make a optimistic contribution to the vitality transition, together with renewable vitality era, grid-scale batteries, inexperienced superior manufacturing, and related industries,” he stated.
Nicks stated the settlement with Sundrive is the newest of many partnerships that may remodel the Liddell and close by Bayswater energy station websites right into a low-carbon built-in vitality hub,
“We’re on the lookout for partnerships, for alternatives that remodel our enterprise, that decarbonise our portfolio and repurpose our websites into clear industrial hubs,” he stated. “We imagine that this partnership has a major alternative to develop actual advantages for the vitality transition and if profitable will create jobs on this group and for the broader communities round us.”
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