Australian PV cell technology startup SunDrive Solar has signed a joint development agreement with China’s Maxwell Technologies and Vistar Equipment Technology, two suppliers of solar cell production equipment.
The partnership, revealed on Sunday (11 May), aims to support the co-development and distribution of commercial-scale direct copper plating tools that will help unlock SunDrive’s high-efficiency heterojunction (HJT) solar cells.
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SunDrive’s novel solar cell technology replaces the silver traditionally used in solar cell production with copper, which is cheaper and more abundant than silver.
Using copper for solar metallisation could result in cheaper and more efficient solar module production than current standards. Copper is also easier to recycle than silver, and less energy is required in this process.
The use of silver is projected to become a concern for the PV industry. If silver continues to be a prominent metal component, solar manufacturing will consume up to 98% of the world’s silver reserves by 2050, according to a 2023 study from the University of New South Wales (UNSW).
Because of this, SunDrive’s technology has already captured the attention of some of China’s most prominent players in the solar PV space. Indeed, last year, SunDrive partnered with Trina Solar to launch a joint venture and explore domestic manufacturing opportunities in Australia.
This latest partnership with Maxwell and Vistar aims to facilitate “rapid scale-up and future deployment in domestic and global manufacturing lines.”
Natalie Malligan, CEO of SunDrive, noted that the partnerships are a “clear validation of SunDrive’s strategy” to partner with “the best in the industry to bring it [SunDrive’s HJT technology] to market”
“Maxwell and Vistar’s extensive track record in bringing commercial-scale solar cell production equipment rapidly to market, and distributing at-scale, represents the ideal launchpad for SunDrive to take our technology to Australia and the world,” Malligan said.
UNSW spin-off continues partnership expansion following restructuring
Based in South Sydney, New South Wales, SunDrive Solar received AU$11 million (US$7.6 million) from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) in 2023. The organisation is a spin-off from UNSW.
In August 2024, the company underwent a restructuring. The restructuring aimed to streamline the organisation’s operations, improve its solar technology, and navigate a commercial route to market through partnerships.
This led to a partnership with Capral Aluminium in December, aiming to improve the competitiveness of local solar PV module production while significantly decreasing its environmental impact.
Maxwell is a major player in HJT solar cell production equipment, claiming it supplies more than 80% of installed capacity worldwide. SunDrive also notes that the three companies have collaborated closely for over five years and have achieved several technical milestones together.
For instance, SunDrive and Maxwell jointly claimed a world-record cell efficiency of 25.54% in 2021.
Zhou Jian, chairman of Maxwell Technologies, said that technological innovation is the “cornerstone of the PV industry to overcome cycles and advance toward a brighter future.”
“We hope this collaboration will deepen our joint R&D capabilities in copper plating, achieve breakthroughs in cell conversion efficiency, module power output, and mass producibility, as well as propel HJT technology into the 780W+ era, opening new frontiers for the industry’s development,” Jian added.
