Australian solar cell innovator SunDrive has teamed with one of China’s biggest solar photovoltaic panel makers for a federal funding bid to scale up local manufacturing.
The Sydney-based company announced a Memorandum of Understanding with Trinasolar on Monday to create a majority Australian-owned joint venture that will seek funding under the government’s $1 billion Solar Sunshot program.
Solar Sunshot, which is part of the $22.7 billion Future Made in Australia plan, opened to applications last month amid ongoing concerns about the viability of local manufacturing.
Under the joint venture, SunDrive will lead the application for funding, which it described as “crucial” to progressing solar module production, including at a proposed advanced manufacturing facility at AGL’s future Hunter Energy Hub.
A feasibility study, announced by the energy retailer in May, is expected to outline the infrastructure and engineering requirements and identify the regulatory hurdles for the PV manufacturing facility.
SunDrive and Trinasolar – which have collaborated on technology since 2019 – plan to establish “cutting-edge solar manufacturing capabilities”, boosting the ability to “competitively produce high-quality solar products locally”.
The facility is expected to create more than 300 skilled jobs just months after a restructure reportedly claimed half of SunDrive’s staff and saw co-founder Vince Allen replaced as chief executive.
SunDrive chief executive Natalie Malligan said the joint venture with one of the world’s largest manufacturers of photovoltaic (PV) panels was a “testament to SunDrive’s position as a world leader in solar innovation”.
“This collaboration demonstrates SunDrive and Trinasolar’s mutual belief that Australia’s engine of solar innovation can drive a global solar manufacturing powerhouse, producing the future of clean energy from right here at home,” she said.
Mr Allen, who is now SunDrive’s chief technology officer, added that by “combining home-grown innovation with experience to scale Australia-made solar panels … will drive the future of Australia’s clean energy transition”.
“We founded SunDrive with the vision of developing and deploying the world’s best solar technology, right here in Australia for Australian homes and businesses. Collaborating with Trinasolar… turns that vision into reality,” he said.
Mr Allen founded the company in 2015 after developing proprietary technology that replaces the silver used for solar electrodes with cheaper and more abundant copper to produce high-efficiency solar cells.
The company, which has the backing of Atlassian founder Mike Cannon-Brookes and former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, in November last year opened a pilot production and commercialisation facility at Kurnell in Sydney’s south.
In the same month, SunDrive also scored $11 million from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency to accelerate its copper-plated solar PV technology to commercial-scale production capacity, building on an early $3 million grant.
The federal Opposition has lashed the MoU, which Shadow minister for manufacturing Sussan Ley said opens the door to a large foreign company accessing manufacturing subsidies.
“Anthony Albanese and Jim Chalmers told the Australian people this money would be going to Aussie companies, but instead it could be going offshore. Labor’s Future Made in Australia appears to be a future made by foreign companies,” she said.
The solar PV supply chain is currently dominated by China, which accounts for around 80 per cent of global production for all key manufacturing stages, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).
Trinasolar has produced more than 225 GW of solar modules globally since it was founded in 1997. The company, which has more than 20,000 employees, has supplied the Australian market since 2009.
Trinasolar’s A/NZ head Edison Zhou said the company is excited to “collaborate with SunDrive to bring world-class solar manufacturing to the region”, adding that “Australia’s innovation in solar is renowned”.
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Australia (Each continent) needs a gigafactory for solar panels.
Would give us a better chance.