Australian solar innovator SunDrive has signed a Joint Development Agreement (JDA) with global solar equipment firms Maxwell Technologies and Vistar Equipment Technology to co-develop and distribute commercial-scale direct-copper plating tools, to unlock the full potential of high-efficiency heterojunction (HJT) solar cells.
The JDA is a continuation of SunDrive’s previously announced strategy to partner with world-leading equipment developers and manufacturers to accelerate commercialisation of its technology.
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Last year SunDrive announced a collaboration with global solar manufacturer Trinasolar to pursue the establishment of domestic solar manufacturing in Australia. This joint-development partnership with Maxwell and Vistar represents the path to industrialise SunDrive’s technology from pilot-scale to commercial-scale, to enable deployment in the manufacturing context.
“This partnership is a clear validation of SunDrive’s strategy: to focus on world-class solar innovation, right here in Australia, and partner with the best in the industry to bring it 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,” SunDrive CEO Natalie Malligan said.
The shift from silver to copper is essential to the future of solar manufacturing. As silver becomes more expensive and supply chains tighten, copper offers a scalable, cost-effective, and sustainable alternative. This collaboration helps support HJT’s long-term viability by addressing one of its biggest material constraints.
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SunDrive is an Australian-founded, Sydney-based solar technology company creating unique solutions to reduce the cost of high-efficiency solar cells, whilst enhancing their performance and sustainability by replacing silver with copper, a more abundant and efficient material.
SunDrive was co-founded by Vince Allen and David Hu in 2015 based on technology developed during Vince’s PhD research at UNSW. SunDrive’s investors include Blackbird Ventures, Main Sequence Ventures, Grok Ventures, the Clean Energy Finance Corporation and has received funding from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (Arena).
