The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) has committed up to $31.1 million in funding to establish solar robotics manufacturing facilities in Melbourne and Brisbane to support safer and more efficient large-scale solar farm builds.
Funded under Round 2 of ARENA’s Solar Sunshot Program, the projects will manufacture two complementary technologies in Australia—robots that install solar panels and autonomous systems that drive foundation piles.
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ARENA is providing up to $17.8 million to Luminous Robotics to establish a Melbourne manufacturing facility for its autonomous solar panel installation robots, called LUMIs. The facility is expected to support the manufacture and deployment of around 100 LUMI robots by 2029, helping automate solar panel installation on large-scale solar farms.
ARENA supported demonstrations of LUMI robots at solar farms in Victoria and New South Wales, where the technology was tested under Australian construction and environmental conditions. The new funding will enable moving the technology from field demonstration to industrial-scale manufacturing in Australia.
Built Robotics Australia will also receive up to $13.3 million to establish a Brisbane manufacturing hub and operations centre for autonomous piling systems used in utility-scale solar construction. The facility will manufacture and deploy 12 robotic piling systems, helping automate one of the most labour-intensive stages of solar farm construction.
The project builds on previous ARENA-supported deployments of Built Robotics’ autonomous piling technology in Australia, establishing domestic capability to manufacture, integrate and test piling systems for solar projects.
The new facilities in Victoria and Queensland will help improve productivity, slash construction costs, and ease workforce constraints as large-scale solar deployment grows.
ARENA CEO Darren Miller said the projects would advance the development of technologies previously demonstrated in Australian conditions into locally manufactured products that can be deployed at scale.
“Installing foundations and placing panels are two of the most labour-intensive parts of solar farm construction. It’s hard work in the hot sun,” he said.
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“Australia needs to install large volumes of solar quickly and cost-effectively. Local manufacturing and automation can improve the way solar farms are built by reducing construction costs and making installation faster, safer and more efficient; an important part of ARENA’s ultra low-cost solar vision.
“Manufacturing these technologies in Australia will help to strengthen local supply chains, develop specialist skills and give solar projects better access to advanced construction equipment when and where it is needed.”
