Australia's top solar study institution arrests $19m in new financing

• The country's leading solar research centre has actually secured its first major grant in years with the Australian Renewable Energy Agency tipping in $19 million for equipment to help clean energy even more competitive.

The Australian Centre for Advance Photovoltaics, based at the University of NSW, will certainly use the funds to prolong its world-leading research study right into new solar cell and also gas materials, increase cell performance, and establish new storage items.

Renate Egan, an elderly solar scientist at the centre, said regarding 85 percent of the modules generated globally make use of a modern technology called PERC, or Passivated Emitter and also Rear Cell, developed at UNSW.

" It holds true that solar is now the lowest expense form of brand-new power generation and takes on the marginal expense of coal, however there is still more to do," Professor Egan said.

" We see significant chances to improve efficiency and also looks and to develop solar for applications beyond roofs and also energy range. We see the module modern technology of today to be similar to the smart phone technologies of the 1990s-- it is practical and also reliable, yet has a long way to go."

Solar energy costs remain to drop worldwide, with the latest large-scale auctions in India driving agreements below 2 cents per kilowatt-hour, according to the Institute for Energy Economics and also Financial Analysis.

The Herald comprehends the choice to inject even more cash right into the UNSW-based solar research study center was made some time ago by ARENA and the Morrison federal government yet they postponed introducing the funding.

"This investment by the Commonwealth federal government mirrors a self-confidence in Australia's leadership in solar research study and also an objective to keep Australia at the leading edge of modern technology growth," Professor Egan said, adding it likewise synced with the federal government's innovation investment guidebook targeted at driving down greenhouse gas emissions in the nation.

Among the applications for the funds will be the growth of new combinations of products that can be made use of to generate energy more successfully and also to position the energy generation tools in more locations than roof panels or solar farms.

"We are working with solar embedded on surfaces consisting of electrical vehicles as well as structures, flexible solar technologies and also cells that power remote-sensing gadgets," Professor Egan stated.

Amongst the ACAP recipients are the Australian National University, Monash University, Melbourne University and CSIRO.