Funding for Australia’s solar research

EcoGeneration — July/August 2010

The newest round of The Australian Solar Institute’s funding, announced on 11 May 2010, provided five of Australia’s solar research projects with grants worth a total of $18.45 million.

The Australian Solar Institute (ASI) invests in research and development to accelerate to market innovation in photovoltaic (PV) and concentrating solar thermal (CST) technologies, which have the potential to significantly reduce the cost of solar energy compared to existing energy sources.

Taking into account contributions from research, industry and state government project collaborators, the total leveraged value of the five projects in the latest round of ASI is funding is $67.7 million.

“This funding brings the total ASI investment portfolio to $44.5 million, helping to fund thirteen R&D projects with a total leveraged value of around $131 million,” said ASI Executive Director Mark Twidell upon announcing the new investments.

The five funded projects are:

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University of New South Wales – $5 million

Overcoming the fundamental performance limitations of commercial solar cells

The funding will support a $24.16 million applied research project in collaboration with Suntech Power and Silex Solar. The project targets the delivery of a 25 per cent performance increase with a corresponding 15–20 per cent reduction in solar cell costs in dollars per watt.

BT Imaging Pty Ltd – $2.25 million

Inline inspection tools for PV manufacturing

The funding will support a $5.43 million applied research project in collaboration with Q-Cells, REC Wafer, the Australian National University and CSIRO.

The project looks to develop an inspection tool to find micro-cracks in silicon wafers and cells during their manufacture; and an inspection tool that delivers process and quality control, and sorting of multi-crystalline and mono-crystalline silicon blocks.

Sapphicon Semiconductor Pty Ltd, a Silanna Group Company – $2.25 million

A high-efficiency, integrated solar module on a transparent substrate

The funding will support a $15.65million applied research project, which aims to deliver significant improvements in the efficiency, cost and robustness of concentrating PV systems through the development of novel, high efficiency, single-crystal silicon solar cells. Y

CSIRO and the Australian National University – $4 million

Development of advanced solar thermal energy storage technologies for integration with energy intensive industrial processes and electricity generation

The funding will support a $9 million core-funded research project that will develop cost-effective thermal storage systems to generate solar electricity after dark. This is required for solar thermal energy to make a significant contribution to Australia’s electricity market.

Australian National University – $4.95 million

Next Generation of Solar Cells

The funding will support a $13.5 million applied research project in collaboration with Transform Solar – an Origin Energy Joint Venture with Micron Technology Inc. The project looks to significantly increase SLIVER cell efficiency and simplify the cell fabrication process to lower fabrication costs, while also allowing improvements in cell yield.

Driving solar innovation

The Australian Solar Institute (ASI) was established in early 2009 through the allocation of $100 million from the Federal Government’s Energy Innovation Fund. With national headquarters located in Newcastle, New South Wales, the ASI supports Australian researchers through a competitive grants program designed to encourage any Australian researcher in solar PV and CST technologies to apply for funding, including researchers from the both public and private sectors.

Current overall funding parameters:

$100 million from the Australian Government from 2009 to June 2012.
Research and development funding to be split 50:50 between PV and CST, to be reviewed after 12 months.
60 per cent of research and development funding to be allocated through competitive process open to public and private researchers in Australia.
40 per cent of research and development funding set aside for core research projects, of which $15 million is allocated to foundation projects.

Nano solar cell facility launched

In other research developments, Australian nanoplasmic solar cell technology will be developed for commercial production at the recently launched Victoria-Suntech Advanced Solar Facility in Melbourne.

The facility, a collaborative venture between Swinburne University of Technology and Suntech Power Holdings, is headed locally by Professor Min Gu, Director of the Swinburne Centre for Micro-Photonics and has been partially funded by a
$3 million grant under the Victorian Science Agenda Investment Fund.

Research in the Victoria-Suntech Advanced Solar Facility will focus on developing the next generation in solar technology based on nanoplasmonic solar cells with the aim of dramatically increasing the efficiency of current PV cells.

The collaboration will provide a platform for the partners to commercialise NANOPLAS, a nanoplasmonic solar cell technology being developed at Swinburne University.

Appeared in issue: EcoGeneration - July/August 2010 EcoGeneration — July/August 2010