On behalf of the Australian Government, the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) today announced it has awarded $15.14 million in funding to 16 research projects to help address solar PV panel efficiency, overall cost reductions and end-of-life issues.
The funding has been awarded to research teams from six Australian universities including the Australian National University, Macquarie University, University of Melbourne, University of New South Wales, University of Sydney and Swinburne University.
ARENA initially opened the application in December last year with a $15 million commitment. The round received over 50 applications with a total project value of over $150 million.
The two-year R&D projects will support solar PV in the following areas:
- advanced silicon: improvements to the overall cost-effectiveness of silicon-based panels already in mass market production, and their production processes
- tandem silicon: increasing the cost-effectiveness of silicon-based solar PV through the use of tandem materials
- new materials: development of new materials with the potential to either reach breakthrough cost-efficiencies, or the potential for new deployment applications
- end-of-life: new solutions, including upfront solar PV panel designs and end of life processing, that increase the cost-effectiveness of sustainable end-of-life management of solar PV panels.
The 16 projects selected will strengthen Australia’s world-leading solar PV R&D sector that ARENA has helped establish through its previous funding. This is the first time that ARENA has sought applications for addressing solutions to end-of-life solar PV issues. It is anticipated in excess of 50 full time equivalent positions will be created across the 16 projects.
In addition to end-of-life issues, selected projects will also aim to improve the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of solar PV for new or established applications and develop new materials with the potential to either reach breakthrough cost-efficiencies, or the potential for new deployment applications.
ARENA CEO Darren Miller said it was fantastic to see so much interest in the latest solar R&D round.
“We’re very pleased with the level of interest which is reflected in the great variety of projects across the priority areas, particularly in the Advanced Silicon field where Australia leads the world,” Mr Miller said.
“A key part of the funding round was finding a solution to the end-of-life of solar panels and we’re excited to see some interesting new research into this area. It’s an important part in our transition to renewable energy as we need to ensure that materials used in solar panels can be recycled or repurposed for future use,” he said.
University | Priority Area / Funding Amount / Project Description | ||
| Australian National University | Priority Area: Advanced Silicon Funding: $404,177 Physical vapour deposited passivating contacts for high efficiency silicon solar cells | ||
| Australian National University | Priority Area: Advanced Silicon Funding: $455,322 Simplifying production of high-efficiency silicon solar cells | ||
| Australian National University | Priority Area: Tandem Silicon Funding: $1,130,542 Further reducing tandem costs while achieving high conversion efficiency and stability | ||
| Australian National University | Priority Area: New Materials Funding: $735,288 Perovskite modules that are stable under real-world conditions | ||
| Australian National University | Priority Area: Advanced Silicon Funding: $507,819 Heterocontact-Polysilicon Hybrid Interdigitated Back Contact Solar Cells | ||
| Macquarie University | Priority Area: Advanced Silicon Funding: $420,000 Substitution of niche-market PV production tools with cost-effective consumer-electronics technology | ||
| University of Melbourne | Priority Area: New Materials Funding: $1,290,333 | ||
| University of New South Wales | Priority Area: Advanced Silicon Funding: $1,767,730 | ||
| University of New South Wales | Priority Area: Advanced Silicon Funding: $694,224 Lower PV cost through luminescence imaging and machine-learning | ||
| University of New South Wales | Priority Area: Advanced Silicon Funding: $1,232,429 Advanced Silicon next-generation selective-emitters for commercial solar panels | ||
| University of New South Wales | Priority Area: End of Life Funding: $1,360,000 A highly efficient, low-cost and eco-friendly recycling technology for silicon photovoltaic panels | ||
| University of New South Wales | Priority Area: End of Life Funding: $1,560,000 | ||
| University of New South Wales | Priority Area: Tandem Silicon Funding: $693,388 Antimony chalcogenide: a top cell alternative for Silicon tandem cells | ||
| University of Sydney | Priority Area: Tandem Silicon Funding: $987,285 | ||
| University of Sydney | Priority Area: Tandem Silicon Funding: $1,494,340 | ||
| Swinburne University | Priority Area: End of Life Funding: $404,000 Electrically-Enhanced Recycling Process for End of Life Silicon PV-Cells | ||
| TOTAL FUNDING | $15,136,877 |
