Prefabricated solar structure provider 5B has become the first recipient of the Australian government’s AU$1 billion (US$640 million) Solar Sunshot Program, securing up to AU$46 million for its “Maverick” automated solar deployment system.
The Maverick solution is a pre-assembled PV structure with added solar modules that can be unfolded and deployed easily at project sites, dramatically reducing installation times and labour hours.
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Pre-assembled solutions can also be redeployed in other locations, which mitigates fears about the potentially high financial and environmental costs of decommissioning a PV project.
5B has already worked on two such sites in Australia, one a 16.9MW deployment on a waste rock dump in Western Australia for a mining company with its EPC partner Zenith Energy.
It has also completed a 1.5MW deployment on a landfill site for a waste management company in Albury, New South Wales. It supplies power to a hydrocarbon processing plant and the regional town.
5B CEO David Griffin stated that this funding will reduce the company’s production costs in Australia by 25%. It will also enable 5B to provide large customers with more affordable energy while maintaining the safety, speed, and land efficiency unique to the 5B Maverick solution.
“It means we can further strengthen our team, creating opportunities from the factory floor, in our field deployment crews, and specialists working on gigawatts of solar farm designs,” Griffin said.
Darren Miller, CEO of the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), which administers the government programme, said projects such as 5B’s would support ARENA’s “vision of reaching 1TW of installed solar PV in Australia by 2050 to achieve our renewable energy ambitions.”
“This project represents the best of homegrown Australian technology and innovation in solar and we are proud to support 5B’s goals of making solar deployment faster, cheaper, safer and more efficient…Today represents a step towards building Australia’s resilience in the solar value chain as the global demand for renewable energy technologies, products and knowledge intensifies,” Miller said.
5B closes its biggest order to date following Solar Sunshot success
The funding will help expand 5B’s manufacturing capacity for solar technology in Australia, enabling the production of at least 200MW of Maverick units at their facility in Adelaide over the next three years.
These Maverick systems will meet the growing demand for large-scale solar deployment across Australia.
5B also took to LinkedIn to announce that it had received the funding via the Solar Sunshot Program and closed an order over 100MW with this incentive, representing its biggest order to date.
The organisation already has an international presence, having secured partnerships in the US and India in recent years.
5B operates three assembly locations worldwide as it aims to expand its manufacturing footprint. The first is its commercial assembly factory and centre of excellence in Adelaide, Australia, which serves the Australian market. The second assembly site is located in Vietnam, and the company is also launching a new venture in India in partnership with Waaree.
Inside Australia’s Solar Sunshot initiative
Readers of PV Tech will be aware of Australia’s Solar Sunshot initiative, first announced in March 2024 by prime minister Anthony Albanese. This programme aims to bolster efforts to create Australian-made solar PV modules for the global market and is administered by ARENA.
It will also support ARENA in delivering its Ultra Low-Cost Solar (ULCS) concept. This concept envisages a ‘30-30-30’ approach to solar, representing 30% solar module efficiency and an installed cost of 30 cents per watt by 2030. This would mean achieving a levelised cost of electricity below AUS$20 per megawatt hour by 2030, just one-third of its 2023 cost.
The initiative plans to use the funds to support the building of ingots, wafers, cells, modules and “related components”, which include inverters and solar glass. In doing so, ARENA believes this can diversify Australia’s supply chains and create economic opportunities. PV Tech Premium explored the Solar Sunshot initiative in PV Tech Power Volume 40.
The Australian government also launched a complementary programme, the Solar ScaleUp Challenge, in June 2024. Whereas Sunshot focuses on domestic module manufacturing, ScaleUp delves into the deployment of solar modules.
