Australia has a golden opportunity to expand solar energy manufacturing

Australia has a golden opportunity to expand its solar energy manufacturing capacity as the industry booms and nations scramble to cut their over-dependence on China, a report by the Australian Australian PV Institute Institute says.

Renate Egan, the APVI secretary and head of the Australian Centre for Advanced Photovoltaics, said China would remain an important supplier of panels to Australia but it was important to diversify supply, including by using local firms.

The Covid pandemic helped spur demands for more local manufacturing capability when Australia struggled to secure supplies of vaccines and medical equipment.

Ongoing supply chain disruptions, particularly as China maintains its Covid-zero policies, have given added impetus to calls for more domestic production capability.

SunDrive is a firm considering commercial-size silicon-based solar cell fabrication in Australia, while 5B is aiming at fast low-cost PV deployment to supply some of the multi-gigawatt-sized solar farms planned for northern Australia.

Customers could include Sun Cable, a venture supported by billionaires Mike Cannon-Brookes and Andrew Forrest, that aims to build a 12,000-hectare solar precinct in the Northern Territory with 17-20GW capacity and 36-42GW-hours of energy storage.