Solar farms across Australia are about to get a robotic makeover, with artificial intelligence-powered machines set to revolutionise how panels are installed across the country’s renewable energy landscape.
Robotics pioneer Luminous has scored $4.9 million in funding as the first recipient of ARENA’s $100 million Solar ScaleUp Challenge, designed to crowdsource ideas from around the world on reducing large-scale solar costs.
The star of the show is LUMI, an AI-powered pick and place robot that tackles one of the industry’s most back-breaking tasks: solar panel installation. Think of it as the ultimate construction worker that never gets tired, doesn’t need coffee breaks, and can work with pinpoint precision all day long.
LUMI autonomously places solar modules onto racking structures, allowing human workers to focus on the final securing process. The result? Installation speeds up to 3.5 times faster, with significantly less manual labour and improved safety outcomes.
ARENA chief executive Darren Miller said reducing costs was critical to achieving the agency’s ultra low-cost solar vision.
“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 below $20 per megawatt hour,” Miller said.
“To achieve net zero, Australia will need immense amounts of solar power at ultra-low cost. Solutions like LUMI are key to reducing costs and maintaining Australia’s leading role in the development and innovation of solar technologies.”
While LUMI has already proven its worth on US solar farms, this marks the first global deployment of a full fleet of five robots, potentially lowering solar farm costs by up to 6.2 per cent.
Luminous has partnered with global engineering firm Equans to deploy LUMI at two Australian solar farms: the 440MW (peak capacity) Neoen Culcairn Solar Farm in New South Wales and the 250MW (peak capacity) Engie Goorambat East Solar Farm in Victoria.
Luminous chief executive Jay M Wong said the deployment would showcase the future of solar construction in one of the world’s most advanced solar markets.
“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,” Wong said.
Picture: supplied
