ARENA has announced AUD 3.2 million in new funding for 2 solar related projects
PV Lighthouse has secured AUD 1.97 million to expand the SunSolve software that creates a digital twin for cell & module design
Built Robotics will deploy AUD 1.3 million in funds to build autonomous piling robots to reduce labor costs and installation time
The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) has announced AUD 3.2 million ($2.1 million) in funding for robotics and software projects that it believes will help achieve its vision of ultra low-cost solar (ULCS).
Its vision is to achieve 30-30-30, translating into 30% solar module efficiency with an installed cost of 30 cents/W by 2030 (see ARENA’s 30-30-30 Whitepaper For PV Technology).
One of the beneficiaries, PV Lighthouse has secured AUD 1.97 million ($1.3 million) to expand its SunSolve yield modeling software. The latter helps create a digital twin for cell and module design to build an accurate model to match real-world performance.
The ARENA funding will enable it to further improve the existing SunSolve software to increase the accuracy of power output forecasts, and reduce uncertainty and risk during planning and development.
The Founder and CEO of PV Lighthouse and SunSolve, Keith McIntosh believes before SunSolve, developers had to ‘guesstimate’ several of the loss factors for their yield forecasts. “Now developers can rapidly calculate these factors with SunSolve, giving them greater confidence in their forecasts – a key advantage when negotiating project financing,” he explained.
Built Robotics Australia has won AUD 1.3 million ($0.85 million) ARENA funding to build its autonomous piling robots project. It aims to automate the pile driving processes associated with constructing utility-scale solar farms to reduce labor costs and installation time.
According to ARENA, the design and piloting of 1st and 2nd generation prototype robots of Built Robotics have the potential to reduce piling time and labor costs by close to 82% and 88%, respectively.
Both these winning technologies will make it easier and faster to deploy solar, according to ARENA CEO Darren Miller.
“Ultra low-cost solar is Australia’s key to achieving the renewable energy transition and reaching our net zero goals,” said Miller. “Automation and efficiency are both leading tools in driving down costs. Both projects are exploring innovative approaches to doing just this.”
Its support for the 2 projects, under ARENA’s AUD 100 million Solar ScaleUp Challenge, is expected to unlock more than AUD 6.5 million ($4.24 million) in total investment across both projects.
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