Australian Energy Minister Chris Bowen says the federal government’s A$1 billion ($662.2 million) Solar Sunshot initiative could see domestic production reach 20% of will cover the country’s need for PV panels.
Estimates suggest Australia will need to install nearly 28,000 solar panels per day over the next six years to meet its 2030 decarbonization and renewable energy targets.
Federal Energy Minister Chris Bowen has tipped the local manufacturing sector to capture a big share of that market. He said that under “ideal conditions” about 20% of the national need for solar panels could be met by domestic production.
‘We have invested 60 million solar panels on our roofs in the last decade. We need to spend another 60 million over the next six years,” he said. “And I don’t really think it’s sustainable or a good idea to continually have 1% of that made in Australia.”
Bowen said the Solar sun baffle The program will use Australian technology, innovation, knowledge and skills and make this competitive with the Inflation Reduction Act in the United States and government support elsewhere.
“We never said we can make everything we need here, or that we can make every part of the supply chain or do everything. What we want is a more diverse supply chain,” he said. “We want to make more things here.”
The Australian Government has committed up to AUD 1 billion in funding for the Solar Sunshot program, to build and support domestic manufacturing capabilities across the PV supply chain, including production of polysiliconproduction of blocks, wafers, solar PV cells and assembly of solar modules.
The investment includes AUD 835.6 million over ten years from 2024-25 and AUD 66.8 million per year from 2034-35 to 2036-37, to deliver the program through production incentives and other forms of support. The program can also support complementary aspects of the PV supply chain, such as solar glass, module frames, deployment technology and other innovation or manufacturing elements required for solar deployment.
Tindo Solar Chief Executive Officer Richard Petterson said the manufacturing credits provided by the financing initiative will provide a short-term mechanism to help narrow the price gap between locally produced panels and imports as the industry scales up, at which point locally produced products will increasingly become produced. competitive and a domestic supply chain will emerge.
“Countries are shifting their energy systems to renewable sources, and they must maintain a level of sovereign control over those new systems by supporting local production,” he said. “This means Australia’s renewable energy sector is competing with Beijing, Washington and Brussels. The Sunshot program seeks to neutralize this discrepancy and gain some sovereign capacity in our emerging energy system.”
Petterson said the program will also ensure Australia shares in more of the benefits of the energy transition as the market for panels is set to grow exponentially. The Australian energy market operator estimates that by 2050, 70 GW of utility-scale solar and 69 GW of distributed solar will be needed to meet domestic electricity demand alone.
“This presents a clear opportunity for a domestic industry if supported to scale up quickly,” he said.
Tindo Solar is expected to apply for financing under the Solar Sunshot umbrella for a project that is expected to deliver a manufacturing facility capable of producing 1 GW of panels per year. The company is planning an expansion of its current facility in Adelaide and is also building a “gigafactory‘at an undisclosed location on the east coast of Australia.
The company predicts that the massive AUD 90 million to AUD 100 million factory will create 250 jobs and be able to produce 7,000 panels per day and to some extent meet the demand for panels needed to meet Australia’s 2030 renewable energy targets.
Tindo Solar said it is already in discussions with local manufacturers of glass, aluminum, solar cells and other components to meet the facility’s demand.
“To build a renewable energy manufacturing industry we need scale, and we see Sunshot as a practical way to do that in the near term,” said Petterson.
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