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ARENA opens $20m funding round for next generation solar PV

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The Australian Renewable Energy Agency has announced a $20 million funding round to drive more research and development into solar PV to help achieve even greater cost savings and ensure that it can provide more than 30 per cent of Australia’s electricity needs within 15 years.

The funding round will be open for applications from tomorrow (Wednesday, May 24) for one month, and follows the release earlier this month of ARENA’s new investment priorities – which include solar PV research, storage, and renewable energy exports.

ARENA has indicated it will no longer provide funding for large scale solar PV, given the success of its recent $100 million round that helped fund 490MW of projects and helped spark an investment book that has seen another 2000MW of large scale solar begin construction of near financial close.

But CEO Ivor Frischknecht says that despite the recent big falls in the cost of solar, further research was warranted to make the technology even more efficient and affordable.

“This dedicated research and development funding for solar PV is part of our commitment to finding and supporting further breakthroughs in solar PV,” he said in a statement.

“Australia has some of the best solar PV researchers in the world, and we want to build what we’ve already accomplished. This leverage the impressive gains already made in cost reduction and cell efficiency.
“And that is just the beginning. We see a future where solar cells might be on every surface.”  He repeated his view that solar could provide more than 30 per cent of Australia’s electricity within 15 years.
ARENA has committed $109.3 million in funding to solar PV R&D projects, fellowships and scholarships since 2012, and ARENA funded research has helped to break 14 solar efficiency world records.
 The funding round will be open to Australian solar PV researchers undertaking projects focussed on emerging and established solar PV cell and modules technologies. ARENA expects to award grants of between $500,000 and $5 million for any single project.
Giles Parkinson

Giles Parkinson is founder and editor of Renew Economy, and of its sister sites One Step Off The Grid and the EV-focused The Driven. He is the co-host of the weekly Energy Insiders Podcast. Giles has been a journalist for more than 40 years and is a former deputy editor of the Australian Financial Review. You can find him on LinkedIn and on Twitter.

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