NSW grants $3 million to Cannon-Brookes backed solar cell innovator

SunDrive is quickly emerging as a favourite child of public and private investors and grant allocators, with the NSW Environmental Trust this week awarding $3 million to the home-grown solar innovator.

The state money was granted to SunDrive as part of $6.5 million allocation to four clean technology research and development projects to support emissions cuts in high-emitting or hard-to-abate industries.

SunDrive got the lion’s share of the money, however, adding to funds raised through a recent series A round that added the federal government’s Clean Energy Finance Corporation to a mix of deep-pocketed investors.

Those investors include Blackbird Ventures and Grok Ventures, the investment arm of Australian tech billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes and his family.

A new breed of solar cells

SunDrive, a company spun out of the University of New South Wales, is behind a new breed of solar cells that uses copper as the conductive material instead of silver, to improve panel efficiency and cut costs.

The concept was originally developed by SunDrive CEO Vince Allen during his PhD at UNSW. Allen then went on to found SunDrive in 2015 with his flatmate from his undergraduate studies, David Hu.

In September of 2021, SunDrive’s technology claimed a world record of 25.54 per cent for commercial-size silicon solar cell efficiency, overtaking the previous record held by China solar giant Longi. In March, the company notched up second solar cell efficiency record of 26.07 per cent.

The other winners

The other successful recipients of Round 1 of the NSW government grant scheme include Hysata, an Australian start-up claiming the world’s most efficient and lowest cost green hydrogen electrolyser.

Hysata received $1.5 million to support development of this “water electrolyser” technology, which is considered vital to achieving net zero emissions in the global economy.

For Hysata, the grant funding adds to the $42.5 million the company raised in August from some big Australian and global investors – including BlueScope Steel and Vestas – to build a first pilot manufacturing plant.

Southern Green Gas, meanwhile, received $1 million to develop a solar powered e‐kerosene production module for Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF).

And Quickstep Technologies received $803,000 to develop a carbon fibre filament winder system to build Type IV hydrogen tanks for ground transportation and aviation applications.

NSW’s best and brightest

“NSW has a once in a generation opportunity to export the ideas and creations of our best and brightest to the rest of the world,” said state energy minister Matt Kean.

“Investing in clean technology not only creates new pathways to reduce emissions across hard to abate parts of our own economy, it creates new markets for our researchers and entrepreneurs to develop and grow their businesses.”

Round 2 of the grants will open on Monday October 31, 2022, with up to $14 million available for funding. The funding will be available for individual grants of between $400,000 and $3,000,000.