Australian solar cell innovator SunDrive will use a $25.3 million grant from the federal government to more than triple the scale of its ultra-low-cost solar development facility in Sydney’s south.
The Australian Renewable Energy Agency on Tuesday announced the startup would use funds granted through its Advancing Renewables Program to transform its Kurnell site from research and development to “a 300 MW commercial scale production tool”.
ARENA said the funding would help SunDrive produce cheaper copper-based solar modules for in-field testing and early market acceptance.
SunDrive is yet to supply a timeline for the latest Kurnell facility expansion or the eventual commercial availability of products.
The Kurnell facility scale-up will be delivered with SunDrive’s partner solar-cell manufacturers, China-based Maxwell Technologies and Vistar Equipment Technologies.
Vince Allen and David Hu co-founded SunDrive in 2015 based on technology developed during Allen’s PHD research at UNSW, replacing the silver in PV cells with less expensive and more abundant copper.
The company received $3 million funding from ARENA in 2020 to advance its research, and a further $11 million in 2023 to upscale its Kurnell operations.
ARENA chief executive David Miller said SunDrive’s technology showed the capacity of Australian research to drive next-generation solar innovation.
“SunDrive’s unique manufacturing process… results in higher cell and module efficiencies which could have huge benefits for global decarbonisation efforts,” he said.
In 2022, SunDrive broke its own world record for a silver-free heterojunction solar cell, reaching a power conversion efficiency of 26 per cent.
ARENA’s ultra-low-cost solar initiative 30-30-30 aims to produce “30 per cent module efficiency at an installed cost of 30 cents per watt by 2030”.
Mr Allen said the solar industry was behind a third of global demand for industrial silver, while the price of silver surged to a record high of US$52 per ounce in October this year.
“With ARENA’s support and our partners’ expertise, this project intends to deliver a scalable mass-production solution,” he said.
SunDrive also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with China giant Trina Solar last year to jointly apply for funding through the Australian Government’s Solar Sunshot program.
The $1 billion program, which opened for its second round of applications in September, has so far delivered funding to two companies: Tindo Solar and 5B.
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