Australian solar technology company for ground mounted installations, 5B has started constructing its advanced manufacturing pilot line (AMPL) with high automation that's expected to produce a 50 kW to 70 kW solar array every 30 minutes.
Announcing the groundbreaking on its LinkedIn account, 5B called it an 'epic moment' and a 'step change' for the company and the 'whole solar industry'.
"Hopefully, 50 years from now, this moment will be logged alongside Henry Ford's mass manufacturing of cars, or Apple's iPhone for standardizing, simplifying, accelerating, and packing more value into the system itself," it stated.
5B's AMPL enjoys AUD 14 million funding from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) under the latter's Advancing Renewables Program, announced in January 2022.
"5B aims to enable a steep reduction in the overall capital cost of a solar farm featuring 5B Maverick arrays, with a 35% cost reduction forecast by 2023 and a 70% cost reduction forecast by 2030, to 30 cents per watt," stated ARENA back then.
5B that represents '5 billion years of sunshine the earth has left', operates a manufacturing and testing facility in Adelaide while its Sydney headquarters features R&D, advanced manufacturing, deployment and testing facilities. It produces pre-fabricated, modular, and re-deployable Maverick solar arrays with up to 90 solar panels that it claims can be installed in a plug and play format with reduced deployment times and less labor thus contributing to overall cost reduction.
In December 2022, 5B secured oil and gas major bp plc as an investor under its series B funding round (see Australia's 5B Closes Funding Round With BP Pitching In).
Recently, Australia announced AUD 15 billion National Reconstruction Fund to support domestic renewable energy manufacturing projects, including solar panels (see Australia's Response To Inflation Reduction Act).
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