Adelaide-based Tindo will receive a $34.5 million ARENA grant under the Australian Government’s $1 billion Solar Sunshot Program to help expand Australia’s solar manufacturing industry, it was announced today.

The support will allow Tindo – Australia’s only manufacturer of solar panels – to increase its production from 20MW to 180MW per year and to renovate its Mawson Lakes factory to produce at a greater scale and a lower cost-base.

The Solar Sunshot support, administered by ARENA, includes a Manufacturing Production Credit (MPC) and a capital grant which also supports a feasibility study for the development of a future Gigafactory, capable of producing up to 1GW of solar modules per annum. The MPC allows Tindo to ramp up its production and unlock efficiencies so that it can scale its business and compete in the global market.

The production expansion enabled under the Solar Sunshot program will create 50 new jobs and a number of traineeships at the upsized Tindo factory. The project will activate an Australian solar PV supply chain capable of replacing imported components, initially in aluminium frames and junction boxes, but expanding to other solar PV components made by domestic manufacturers.

Chief Executive Officer of Tindo, Mr Richard Petterson, said the Solar Sunshot program was crucial to allowing Tindo to expand its production output and grow its market.

“The Solar Sunshot support means we can lower our prices while maintaining our quality, which quadruples our addressable market and makes Tindo solar panels available to more consumers,” said Mr Petterson. “We make premium solar panels which means we have captured a small section of the Australian solar panel market, but the production credit opens a larger market to Tindo.

“The government’s Solar Sunshot support means Australian manufacturing can play a meaningful part in the national energy transition, which by 2050 will feature around 50 percent of electricity capacity coming from solar PV. It’s important that domestic industry plays a part in our future system, and today’s announcement helps make that a reality.”

Mr Petterson said Tindo had made panels in Australia since 2011 and the product recently topped the CHOICE survey of 15 solar panels available in the Australian market. Tindo’s 410W Karra module was the only panel in the CHOICE survey in which the tested output matched or outperformed the nameplate claim. Tindo solar panels have a 25-year product warranty and are cyclone-rated.

“We are very excited about ARENA’s support for Australia’s solar PV industry, because it means we can grow our workforce by fifty people and compete in the Australian market in a larger way. This is good for Australian manufacturing, good for the environment and great for Australian consumers who will find it affordable to put Australia’s best panel on their roofs.”

Image – Tindo