Agrisolar News #5

8 Jan

Welcome back to Agrisolar News ☀️

In this month’s issue, please meet a couple more of our ever-growing partner base, read about a reminder for your plans-on-a-page, and some exciting news on our contributions & Agrisolar in the news!

Meet the Network

Foundational Partner Spotlight

Meet a couple more in our growing network!

ARES

ARES - Australian Renewable Energy Services Pty Ltd are actively contributing to a sustainable transition to 100% renewable energy supply in Australia by developing, constructing and managing operational assets like utility scale solar farms and energy storage systems.

Their current projects under development include Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) in Camperdown (VIC), Cobden (VIC) and Bouldercombe North (QLD).

Learn more about ARES Pty Ltd here!

Central Queensland University

We are excited to be working with a regional and rural based university in Queensland, Central Queensland University, who bring to our CRC two world-class research centres: the Centre for Hydrogen and Renewable Energy (CHRE) and the Centre for Regional Economies and Supply Chains (CRESC). Both centres will be collaborating with our consortium of industry partners within the Agrisolar CRC and are already supporting our co-design of the CRCs research priorities.

If you would like to work with CQU via the CRC, please don’t hesitate to reach out to the Bid Team or get in touch with Josh Ariens to know more.

Solspan Pty Ltd

Solspan Pty Ltd is the pathway to the future of ultra-low cost solar farms. It achieves this by combining steel rollforming with printed thin film solar material to produce low-cost, flexible solar panels.

Solspan are dedicated to revolutionising the solar energy industry, providing innovative and sustainable solutions for the solar power generation.

They also have the Wirraway Research Farm, a 100ha research, development and demonstration park for new solar technologies in Carcoar, NSW.

Bid Progress Update

Thank you for your Expressions of Interest – but don’t forget your project plans!

We have been over the moon to hear from so many of you regarding your formal EOIs to join our consortium and continue with us on the Agrisolar journey.

At the time of writing, we have accumulated just over $20M of cash & in-kind commitments to the bid for the 10-year CRC and we expect this number to grow in the coming days before we take a little holiday break.

BUT don’t forget, you still have more to do!

We are starting to receive project plans from consortium members and are providing an initial round of feedback and support to each plan submitted.

The Bid Team will review all the plans next year prior to them being included in the Stage 1 submission, so we strongly recommend you take a swing at your project planning as soon as you can and let us know if you need to be partnered with anyone else in the CRC Bid Team to help!

You can download the plan on a page resource by heading to our website here and scrolling to the ‘project-based approach’ section.

We look forward to receiving your plans!

Thanks for coming to the Asia-Pacific Solar Research Conference!

It was a pleasure to meet many new and catch up with some old faces at the Asia-Pacific Solar Research Conference in December.

Our Bid Director, Dr Liz Smith, was delighted to present on the Agri-PV panel along with a suite of our CRC Bid partners: Midwest AgVolts and CRS (Perth) on how a farmer-first approach to Agrisolar is the way forward for this sector to be encouraged to emerge. Thank you so much to panel organiser Dr. Mahesh Suryawanshi (UNSW, pictured) for inviting us to speak!

Upcoming dates!

Stage 1 Submission timing update

We are waiting on dates from Cooperative Research Australia as to when Round 26 will open and close for submissions for CRCs. Please bear with us while we wait this announcement that is crucial to our next sprint within the marathon. Current bid partners will be the first to be advised once the dates have been announced and you will be provided with a timeframe for when your pre-filled paperwork must be submitted to the bid team, for inclusion in the application documents.

Agrisolar in the News

DAS Solar introduces flexible mounting system

Chinese PV module maker DAS Solar has released its fourth-generation flexible mounting system, which can reach heights of up to 9 meters. The system features two span options: a medium span of 20 meters and a large span of 40 meters. Apparently it has withstood a typhoon and is being used to provide shade over a fishery! Read more >>

Newcastle set to be a location for sovereign PV manufacture for flexible panels
Sunman, through its local subsidiary Energus, is now looking to build a 500 MW manufacturing facility in Newcastle, NSW – the world’s largest coal port – and hopes to tap into the federal government’s Solar Sunshot and Future Made in Australia programs to support it.

Australia is looking to reduce its dependence on what amounts to a single supplier, and create its own supply chain under the Solar Sunshot and Future Made in Australia initiatives. Imagine what we could do with this kind of flexi-panel design in ag! Learn more here >>

Looking to get more involved in the decarbonisation community in NSW?