ARENA has approved AUD 31.1 million funding under round 3 of Solar Sunshot program
Luminous Robotics has secured AUD 17.8 million to establish a Melbourne manufacturing facility for 100 autonomous LUMI robots by 2029
Built Robotics Australia will set up its Brisbane manufacturing hub and operations center for autonomous piling systems
The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) has announced up to AUD 31.1 million funding to support two solar robotics manufacturing facilities under the government’s Solar Sunshot program. These projects will automate solar panel installations for large-scale solar farms.
ARENA opened the AUD 1 billion Solar Sunshot Round 2 with an AUD 150 million budget in September 2025. The program aims to support the development of solar PV manufacturing industry in Australia (see Australia’ ARENA Opens Solar Sunshot Funding Round 2).
Of the winning projects, Luminous Robotics has secured AUD 17.8 million to establish a manufacturing facility in Melbourne. It will produce autonomous solar panel installation robots called LUMIs. It targets to manufacture and deploy about 100 LUMI robots by 2029.
The company previously secured AUD 4.9 million from ARENA under the Solar ScaleUp Challenge to deploy its LUMI robots for large-scale solar installations (see Luminous Wins AUD 4.9M In ARENA’s Solar ScaleUp Challenge).
“We’ve proven LUMI on real solar farms in Australia, in the heat and dust, doing some of the hardest work on site. With ARENA’s support, the next step is to turn that into scale,” said Tenzin Crouch, Luminous Robotics Australia General Manager.
The other winner of this round is Built Robotics Australia. It has secured up to AUD 13.3 million to establish a manufacturing hub and operations center for autonomous piling systems for utility-scale solar, in Brisbane. The target is to manufacture and deploy 12 robotic piling systems that will automate labor-intensive stage of solar farm construction.
Built Robotics was one of the winners of ARENA’s AUD 3.2 million funding in 2024 for robotics and software projects (see ARENA Commits AUD 3.2 Million To Drive Down Solar Costs With Software Solutions).
ARENA CEO Darren Miller said, “Australia needs to install large volumes of solar quickly and cost-effectively. Local manufacturing and automation can improve the way solar farms are built by reducing construction costs and making installation faster, safer and more efficient; an important part of ARENA’s ultra low-cost solar vision.”
As part of the vision to achieve 30-30-30 goal—30% solar module efficiency, installed cost of 30 cents/W by 2030—to deliver solar electricity at less than AUD 20/MWh, ARENA is backing new approaches to accelerating utility-scale solar deployment through automation and integrated demonstrations (see ARENA: Lower Solar Module Prices Not Enough For 30-30-30 Goal).
