SunDrive lands $25m grant to commercialise copper solar cell
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The news: Solar panel manufacturer SunDrive receives an additional $25.3 million from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) to scale and commercialise its copper metallisation solar cell technology.
The numbers: The funding adds to a previous $14 million grant from ARENA that was used to demonstrate SunDrive’s copper metallisation technology.
The context: SunDrive will use the new funding to upgrade its research and development facility at its Kurnell facility to enable “local development, deployment and refinement of production tools to further advance technology”.
The company will also complete cost modelling to support a commercialisation pathway, with early modules produced at the Kurnell facility for “in-field testing and early market acceptance”.
Work on commercialising the solar cell technology is being undertaken with Chinese solar equipment manufacturers Maxwell Technologies and Vistar Equipment Technology.
What they said: “By tackling one of the biggest cost items in solar cell manufacturing, SunDrive is demonstrating how Australian research can drive next-generation solar innovation,” ARENA CEO Darren Miller said.
“Not only is copper more abundant and cheaper than silver, but SunDrive’s unique manufacturing process also results in higher cell and module efficiencies which could have huge benefits for global decarbonisation efforts.”
The source: ARENA media release
