Australia’s only solar module maker wins Sunshot funds for huge scale up, gigascale study

Australia’s only solar panel manufacturer has won federal government backing to deliver a huge scale-up in production – from 20 megawatts (MW) a year to 180 MW – and to test the water for a future giga-scale plant, in the latest round of Solar Sunshot funding.

The Australian Renewable Energy Agency said on Wednesday that Tindo Solar has been awarded $34.5 million to renovate and ramp up production at its Mawson Lakes factory in South Australia and expand its product range to include premium N-type modules.

The Solar Sunshot support includes a Manufacturing Production Credit (MPC) and a capital grant, which will also support a feasibility study for the development of a future Gigafactory, capable of producing up to 1 gigawatt (GW) of modules a year. 

The money for Tindo makes up the bulk of a $45.5 million tranche of funding from the Albanese government’s $1 billion Solar Sunshot Program, with a further $11 million awarded to support feasibility studies for upstream solar manufacturing.

Of the $11 million, $4.7 million goes to Stellar PV to test the waters on building a 2 GW low-emissions polysilicon ingot pulling and wafering facility close to Townsville in Queensland.

Another $5 million was granted to Solquartz for its Townsville Green Polysilicon Feasibility Study into a 100,000 tpa low-emission, solar-grade polysilicon production facility, also close to Townsville.

In New South Wales, a company called Energus has been awarded $1.3 million for its feasibility study for a 50,000 tpa low-emissions, solar-grade polysilicon production facility at AGL’s Hunter Energy Hub.

South Australia-based Tindo says the $34.5 million is crucial to the company’s expansion plans, which will create 50 new jobs and a number of traineeships at the upsized Mawson’s Lake factory. Currently the company directly employs around 70 people. 

“We are very excited about ARENA’s support for Australia’s solar PV industry, because it means we can grow our workforce by 50 people and compete in the Australian market in a larger way,” said Tindo CEO Richard Petterson on Wednesday.

“We make premium solar panels which means we have captured a small section of the Australian solar panel market, but the production credit opens a larger market to Tindo.

“The Solar Sunshot support means we can lower our prices while maintaining our quality, which quadruples our addressable market and makes Tindo solar panels available to more consumers,” Petterson said.

“It’s important that domestic industry plays a part in our future system, and today’s announcement helps make that a reality.”

ARENA chief Darren Miller says that Tindo, as Australia’s only homegrown solar module manufacturer, brings “unmatched local expertise” to the Sunshot program.

“With deep knowledge of our labour market and manufacturing processes, they’re uniquely placed to help scale up and strengthen our solar PV industry,” Miller said on Wednesday.

“Australia needs to install hundreds of millions of solar panels over the coming decades to reach our 2050 emissions goals and deliver on the renewable energy superpower ambition.

“There is an opportunity to make a portion of these here in Australia and today marks a significant step in that direction.”

Federal energy minister Chris Bowen, whose home rooftop solar system uses Tindo panels, was at the Mawson Lakes factory on Wednesday for the announcement of the Sunshot funding.

“This will give Tindo the opportunity to cater for around 10 per cent of our domestic demand. And what we’re going to do is work with Tindo through the Solar Sunshot Program Production Credit to ensure that their success is rewarded,” Bowen said. 

“We’re also going to work with Tindo on the next stage. Funding a feasibility study on the next big play for Australian solar panel manufacturing, which will be a factory here which will cater for a gigawatt’s worth of production, a gigafactory, for Australian made solar panels.”

Tindo, which was first founded in South Australia 2011, last year unveiled plans to build a solar panel “gigafactory” in Australia, a feat it claimed at the time that it could pull off with just $90-100 million and within two years, with the right federal government support.

Beyond the Sunshot grant, Petterson has said the company will also vie for a slice of the $15 billion National Reconstruction Fund, which the federal government wants to use to develop more manufacturing capacity in the renewable energy sector.

In June this year, Tindo announced a deal worth $8.4 million with Thanh Do Australia, the local subsidiary of Vietnam’s Thanh Do Construction Group, to supply 15MW worth of high-quality solar panels to large projects in Vietnam.

And just last month, the company agreed to partner with researchers from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) to explore the development of TOPCon solar cells, seen as key to improving module efficiency.

TOPCon, which stands for tunnel oxide passivated contact, was developed in the early 1980s by Professor Martin Green at UNSW and, in laboratory testing, can achieve power conversion efficiency of around 27 per cent, compared to the limit of 25 per cent for current PERC (passivated emitter and rear cell) solar cells.

Backed by funding from the Trailblazer for Recycling and Clean Energy (TRaCE) program, the research agreement will pair Tindo’s manufacturing expertise with UNSW’s world-class research capabilities to take TOpCon cells outside of the laboratory.