Adelaide-based solar panel manufacturer Tindo Solar will receive $34.5 million in federal funding to expand its Mawson Lakes facility, boosting annual production from 20MW to 180MW under the government’s $1 billion Solar Sunshot program.
The program, which opened the first tranche of grants last September, forms part of the $22.7 billion Future Made in Australia plan, led by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA).
The government anticipates the grant will create at least 50 new jobs and deliver enough locally built solar panels to power around 35,000 homes annually, projecting the facility’s expanded capacity to supply up to 200,000 homes each year as “a potential gigafactory”.
Tindo Solar is the second company to receive backing from the Solar Sunshot initiative, following a $46 million investment in solar innovator 5B earlier this year.
The funding provides a “significant step up for Tindo” to increase its capacity and addressable market by “about four times,” according to Tindo Solar chief executive Richard Petterson.
“It also means that we can start working on our supply chain – we have partners we’re already working with in Australia, to onshore as many suppliers as we can, and as we get to greater scale, we believe that will become much more economically feasible, and with the help of organisations like ARENA, understand where those opportunities are,” he said.
The company plans to scale its relationships with universities, research and development organisations, and other industry partnerships using the funding, to support Tindo’s “goal of developing a gigawatt factory,” Mr Patterson added.
The Albanese Government has positioned solar manufacturing as a core component of its domestic renewables push, with the aim to reduce reliance on imported panels and reverse the trend that led to just one per cent of solar panels on Australia roofs having been made in this country, Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen said at the press event on Wednesday.
“When it comes to powering Australia’s future nothing will beat our sun and our solar knowhow,” Mr Bowen said.
“Tindo’s expansion will help secure local jobs, strengthen solar supply chains, boost our clean energy manufacturing capability and ensure we have a future made right here in South Australia.”
The local member for the electorate of Makin Tony Zappia said the investment was “great news for our local community — creating new high-quality jobs here in Mawson Lakes while helping power the country with Australian-made clean energy.”
Alongside the Tindo Solar investment, the government also announced feasibility funding administered by ARENA to explore new upstream solar supply chain projects:
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$5 million to Solquartz to investigate a 100,000-tonne-per-year low-emissions polysilicon plant near Townsville
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$1.3 million to Energus for a polysilicon study at AGL’s Hunter Energy Hub
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$4.7 million to Stellar PV to scope a 2GW ingot pulling and wafering facility, also near Townsville
The Sunshot program forms part of the Albanese Government’s broader “Future Made in Australia” agenda to boost local manufacturing and build resilience in clean energy technologies.
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