$8bn silicon plant for Queensland – reports

Australian owned Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners is to add a missing piece to the solar PV manufacturing puzzle announcing plans for an $8 billion polysilicon manufacturing facility in Townsville, Queensland according to media reports.

The company has been allocated 200 hectares of land at the Lansdown Eco-Industrial Precinct which has acess to renewable energy supplies, promising the production of ‘green’ silicon.

Polysilicon is a basic building block for solar PV panels and is in shortage globally.

Production in Australia could trigger the development of a solar pv panel supply chain which could make local PV module manufacture possible.

RenewEconomy reports Quinbrook senior director Brian Restall as saying: “Lansdown is close to the source of some of the best silica quartz resources in the world and it has the land and site infrastructure we need to build a truly state of the art manufacturing facility that will be powered by renewable energy.

“Close proximity to the port and multiple transport corridors make it a very compelling location for energy intensive, export driven ‘green’ manufacturing.”

Despite being the source of much technology behind the manufacture of solar cells, Australia boasts only one small commercial manufacturer of solar panels, Tindo Solar.

However its factory in Adelaide buys in almost all the components of the panels from overseas.

“We’re looking forward to working with Townsville locals to manufacture green polysilicon right here in Queensland and make this a leading example of Australia’s green superpower potential,” Restall said.

“Our aim is that Quinbrook will ultimately purchase that equipment for our global power generation projects with total confidence in the supply chain that produced them. This is a ‘win win’ outcome.”

Further reading:
Tindo Solar inaugurates new solar PV factory with new Karra panel

Picture: Tinto Solar