{"id":93710,"date":"2025-08-07T06:01:38","date_gmt":"2025-08-06T20:31:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/?p=93710"},"modified":"2025-08-07T06:01:38","modified_gmt":"2025-08-06T20:31:38","slug":"australian-solar-manufacturing-mb3242","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/australian-solar-manufacturing-mb3242\/","title":{"rendered":"Solar Sunshot Sparking More Australian Manufacturing"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Australian<\/p>\n

Australia’s only solar panel manufacturer and several local polysilicon hopefuls have received a significant boost through the Albanese government’s Solar Sunshot initiative.<\/p>\n

The $1 billion Solar Sunshot program<\/a>, being delivered by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), seeks to grow Australia\u2019s solar PV manufacturing industry by supporting local manufacturing innovation, scale and diversity.<\/p>\n

ARENA announced<\/a> yesterday it has awarded $34.5 million in new Solar Sunshot funding to support local panel manufacturer Tindo Solar<\/a> scale up its Adelaide-based production from 20 MW to 180 MW of solar panels<\/a> annually and expand its product range through renovating its still reasonably new Mawson Lakes factory. While the renovations will include introducing advanced automation, more than 50 direct jobs will also be created.<\/p>\n

Additionally, Tindo will conduct a feasibility study on establishing an Australian solar panel ‘gigafactory’ capable of producing 1 GW of\u00a0 panels annually, and develop a recruitment and training program to upskill PV manufacturing industry workers.<\/p>\n

“This funding is a major step forward in establishing a robust Australian solar PV supply chain and will allow us to lower the cost of our high-quality solar panels, making them more accessible to homes and businesses nationwide,” stated the firm<\/a>. “We’re proud to be at the forefront of Australia’s energy transition, playing our part in a cleaner, more sustainable future.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Tindo has been a hive of activity in recent months; teaming up with the University of New South Wales to explore TOPCon solar cell technology<\/a>, being chosen to supply more than 52,000 panels to Queensland\u2019s Bowen Water Pipeline project, and securing a five-year $8.4 million deal to export 15MW of its modules to Vietnam.<\/p>\n

Tindo started manufacturing panels using imported cells in 2011 and opened its new factory in Adelaide in 2021<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Local Polysilicon Feasibility Backing<\/h2>\n

Speaking of imported materials, polysilicon is a crucial material\u00a0 for the manufacture of solar cells. China accounts for the vast majority of the world’s solar polysilicon (and cell and panel) production.<\/p>\n

While polysilicon has been as cheap as chips<\/a> for quite some time due to cut-throat competition between Chinese producers \u2014 putting somewhat of a dampener on a local polysilicon industry firing up \u2014 a major risk to Australia’s solar manufacturing future is our continued reliance on overseas supply chains.<\/p>\n

Back in 2022, CSIRO published the Australian Silicon Action Plan<\/a> indicating how Australia could develop a fully integrated silicon and solar cell supply chain; from mining the quartz to producing polysilicon ingots and wafers, to manufacturing cells and beyond.<\/p>\n

Yesterday, ARENA also announced it had awarded three companies Solar Sunshot funding to support investigations into building a local supply chain. The recipients:<\/p>\n