A US-based robotics firm has become the first recipient of funding from a $100 million Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) program to back innovative technologies that can slash the cost of building large scale solar projects.
The Boston-based robotics pioneer Luminous will receive $4.9 million from Arena’s Solar ScaleUp Challenge, which it will use to demonstrate their Lumi robot, an AI-powered, “empathy-first” robot that helps “pick and place” solar panels during construction.
Lumi is a four-wheel robot with a robotic arm – supplied by Swiss firm Stäubli Robotics – that its developers say is capable of millimetre-level precision grasping and placing solar modules onto racking structures, reducing manual labour and accelerating installation speed.
Onsite workers are still required to complete the final securing process, but Lumi literally does all of the heavy lifting onsite, regardless of weather or terrain.
Luminous also makes a lot of its “empathy-first” approach, considering itself not a “tech-first” but a “customer first” company, utilising technology to scale and mitigate risk.
“Lumi is more than a robot – it is the aggregation of our time with each and every crew member, of the lessons learned by us moving mods via our own hands, of our team living and breathing the same pain that our tech aims to solve,” says Jay M. Wong, Luminous CEO, on the company’s website.
“Lumi’s innovation is derived from a place of empathy, a place at the intersection of human connection and the forefront of technology. And we hope, because of this, Lumi will be embraced, adopted, and truly empower humanity in building our sustainable future.”
Luminous claims that the Lumi robot will help instal solar panels up to 3.5 times faster. Moreover, Lumi requires no onsite integration nor any alteration to existing processes, as the robot is simply designed to slot into how construction is already done.
The Arena funding will see a full fleet of five Lumi robots deployed at two solar projects, starting at the recently completed 440MW Neoen Culcairn solar farm in New South Wales, where the AI will learn and assess the layout of completed solar farms, and how it could be applied.
The choice of Culcairn is interesting as it has already used a Chinese-based robotics firm to help install some of its solar panels, as we reported here.
The Lumi robots will then be deployed at Engie’s 250MW Goorambat East solar project in Victoria to assist with the installation of solar panels. Goorambat East has also been trialling robots to help improve pile driving, in another project funded by Arena.
“With Lumi, we’re not just introducing a robot – we’re setting out to redefine the standard for how solar farms are built and help sites energise faster and safer,” says Wong.
“Deploying our Lumi fleet in Australia will allow us to capture the data, performance insights and real-world impact needed to drive global adoption – the kind of scale and transformation we founded Luminous to achieve.”
ARENA’s support for the deployment of Lumi marks the latest effort in the agency’s support of Australia’s solar PV industry, having provided over $388 million to over 200 solar research and development projects since 2009.
“ARENA has set an ambitious goal to reduce the installed cost of solar to 30 cents per watt and bring the levelised cost of electricity (LCOE) below $20 per megawatt hour,” said Darren Miller, ARENA CEO.
“These are important targets, because at this cost solar will form the foundation for Australia’s renewable energy ‘superpower’ future.
“To achieve net zero, Australia will need immense amounts of solar power at ultra-low cost. We’ve already proven our ability to manufacture advanced technologies. It’s now time to apply that capability to solar PV, a cornerstone of the nation’s clean energy future.”
“Solutions like LUMI are key to reducing costs and maintaining Australia’s leading role in the development and innovation of solar technologies.
“The Solar ScaleUp Challenge brought together local and global thinkers, innovators and developers to collaborate and find innovative and groundbreaking solutions to transform the solar industry. This project is a great example of that ingenuity.”
