Australia is expanding its investment in next-generation photovoltaic technology, with the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) committing up to $105.6 million to 20 research and development projects targeting higher solar efficiency, lower system costs and improved long-term performance.
The funding, ARENA’s largest single investment in solar PV R&D, takes a system-wide approach to reducing the levelised cost of electricity (LCOE). Rather than concentrating only on higher-performing cells, the program covers innovation across solar cells and modules, balance-of-system (BOS) technologies, project deployment, and operations and maintenance (O&M).
One stream focuses on advanced solar cells and modules, with projects targeting three core technology challenges: increasing conversion efficiency, reducing costs and improving stability.
Higher-efficiency technologies can increase energy generation from a given project area, but commercial viability also depends on manufacturing economics and long-term durability. By addressing these areas together, the research program aims to accelerate the transition of emerging PV technologies from laboratory development towards scalable deployment.
Improved module stability will also be important as the industry explores new materials, architectures and manufacturing processes while demanding reliable performance over increasingly long project lifetimes.
A second stream targets BOS, deployment and O&M costs—areas that are becoming increasingly important as module prices decline.
Research will explore ways to reduce solar farm deployment costs, lower ongoing O&M expenditure and introduce other innovations capable of increasing energy yield and reducing LCOE.
Advances in plant engineering, construction methods, monitoring, fault detection and asset management could allow solar farms to generate more electricity while reducing lifecycle costs. This highlights how the next phase of PV innovation is moving beyond individual module performance towards optimisation of the entire solar power plant.
The $105.6 million investment supports ARENA’s ultra-low-cost solar ambition, which targets installed solar costs of $0.30 per watt by 2030.
ARENA had initially allocated $60 million to the funding round but expanded the commitment following strong research proposals.
By combining advances in PV cells and modules with improvements in BOS and O&M, the program reflects an increasingly important direction for solar technology: achieving lower-cost electricity through innovation across the complete project lifecycle.
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