Boston-based Luminous lands $4.9m from ARENA's Solar ScaleUp
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The news: Boston-based Luminous has secured the first grant through the Australian Renewable Energy Agency’s (ARENA) Solar ScaleUp Challenge to deploy its LUMI robots in a bid to lower the cost of installing large-scale solar projects.
The numbers: Luminous has received $4.9 million through the $100 million Solar ScaleUp Challenge to introduce and demonstrate their LUMI robot.
The company claims that the robots could lower costs by up to 6.2% and help install solar panels 3.5 times faster.
The context: The LUMI robot is designed to “autonomously place solar modules onto racking structures, allowing onsite workers to complete the final securing process, reducing manual labour and improving installation speed, safety and cost-efficiency”, according to ARENA.
Luminous has partnered with engineering and construction firm Equans to deploy LUMI at Neoen’s Culcairn Solar Farm in New South Wales and at Engie’s Goorambat East Solar Farm in Victoria.
Through the ARENA funding, fleets of five LUMI robots will be deployed at solar farms in Australia as the first demonstration outside the US.
What they said: “Solutions like LUMI are key to reducing costs and maintaining Australia’s leading role in the development and innovation of solar technologies,” ARENA chief executive Darren Miller said.
“The Solar ScaleUp Challenge brought together local and global thinkers, innovators and developers to collaborate and find innovative and groundbreaking solutions to transform the solar industry. This project is a great example of that ingenuity,”
The source: ARENA media release
