ARENA funds manufacturing of solar construction robots

The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) has announced it is providing up to $31.1 million to establish solar robotics manufacturing facilities in Melbourne and Brisbane. 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.

ARENA says the new facilities in Victoria and Queensland will help improve productivity, reduce construction costs and ease workforce constraints as large-scale solar deployment grows, supporting Australia’s goal of ultra-low-cost solar.

ARENA CEO Darren Miller said these projects will 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. “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.

“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.”

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.

“We’ve proven LUMI on real solar farms in Australia, in the heat and dust, doing some of the hardest work onsite. With ARENA’s support, the next step is to turn that into scale,” said Tenzin Crouch, General Manager, Luminous Robotics Australia.

Built Robotics Australia will 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.

ARENA says that together the projects will build Australian manufacturing capability at two critical stages of solar farm construction. By moving proven robotics into larger-scale production and deployment, they can help create a domestic equipment supply chain for Australia’s growing large‍-‍scale solar industry.

Image credit: Luminous Robotics