Aussie solar pioneer 5B has been selected as the first project to receive funding from the Australian Government’s $1 billion Solar Sunshot Program to help expand Australia’s solar manufacturing industry.
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Funding of up to $46 million will go to the Australian based company to increase manufacturing capacity of its innovative ‘Maverick’ technology—an automated solar deployment system using prefabricated, prewired panels. The technology has the potential to drastically speed up and scale up the roll out of solar farms, reducing the cost and labour intensity of current methods.
5B CEO David Griffin said the funding would drive down 5B’s Australian production costs by 25% and accelerate 5B’s ability to offer large customers lower cost energy alongside the safety, speed and land efficiencies 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.
The funding will support the expansion of 5B’s Australian manufacturing capacity in solar to produce at least 200MW of Maverick units at their Adelaide manufacturing facility over the next three years. The Maverick systems will support the demand for increased deployment of large-scale solar across Australia.
Solar Sunshot was announced by the Australian Government in March 2024 and aims to uncover and support innovation to drive scale and diversity in a critical industry.
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Round 1A offers $500 million of capital and production-linked funding for solar PV manufacturing innovation, with a focus on modules, inputs to modules and deployment systems, while Round 1B offers $50 million of funding to support solar PV manufacturing studies, including feasibility and engineering studies.
