$150 million second round of Solar Sunshot program launched

The federal government has launched round two of the Solar Sunshot program, which is offering a total of $150 million in grants and production credits to support manufacture of solar PV module components, as well as racking, tracking and deployment technologies. 

Projects supported are expected to involve commercial-scale manufacturing of solar PV technologies at “at least TRL 8 and CRI 3 at the time manufacturing commences.”

Federal energy minister Chris Bowen said on Thursday that Round 1 of Solar Sunshot was helping Australian companies to scale up solar manufacturing

“Round 2 is the next step – targeting critical parts of the supply chain to build resilience, security and new jobs,” he added.

Round 1 of the program, run by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), provided support to companies including 5B ($46 million to expand manufacturing capacity of its Maverick solar deployment system), and  Tindo Solar ($34.5 million to boost domestic production of solar PV.)

Applications for the second round open September 23 and close on August 31 next year.

More information is available here.

Picture: Broken Hill Solar Plant (credit Jeremy Buckingham, CC BY 2.0)

Further reading

Tindo Solar awarded $34.5 million through Solar Sunshot Program

Solar SunShot announced, but has Canberra already decided the winners

SunDrive Solar to drive local solar panel manufacture