Agrisolar News #7
Welcome back to AgrisolarNews, and boy, do we have news for you!
Stage 1 Submissions for CRC Bids are NOW OPEN, and the final sprint is in sight – our Bid is due Tuesday 29 April 2025! Below is some information critical to current & pending partners, so please read carefully:
Q: I have already sent my formal EOI to the bid team, what do I need to do?
A: Provided your EOI has been acknowledged and accepted, you will either have already received or will receive shortly, some additional forms for completion.
All partners will receive a declaration to sign and return to the bid team, please keep careful eye out for this email as it is a critical component!
Q: I love the idea of the CRC, but I haven’t quite committed interest yet to the bid. What do I do?
A: Reach out asap for a chat with our Bid Director, Liz Smith. A quick chat to get the current lay of the land and answer questions is always available – no appointment necessary (just leave a message and she will get back to you).
Q: Is there still time to partner in this CRC Bid?
A: Yes! Of course. Please reach out to Liz per the above.
Q: Am I signing up for life?
A: No. Initial agreements will be made for a period of 10 years, but we advise partners to review this agreement on a yearly basis to ensure the CRC is working to its best capacity for you. Partners are therefore asked to sign up for the entire duration, but this is non-binding, you can always reduce the period of commitment later. If you have other questions like this one, please also take a look at our brand-new FAQs page.
*In other very special news…*
We have now reached over $33 million in cash + in-kind commitments from 42 current partners for a 10-year CRC!
The Bid Team thanks you all so very much to all of you who have calculated your contributions carefully and who have invited us to support you in how you can contribute most effectively. We are very understanding of the economic position for both industry and research – and we couldn’t be more grateful for the input received so far.
We do expect EOIs to continue to come in, growing this amount prior to submission. We anticipate that we will be able to ask the Federal Government to match the amount – giving us an ~$80 million CRC.
*Bid resource update*
For our landholders, we have developed a formula for you to calculate what your farm/land as an in-kind contribution will mean to the CRC for 10 years as a R&D site. If you need a copy of the formula to help calculate your in-kind contribution, please reach out ASAP to the Bid’s Project Officer, Kerry Lancaster.
Foundational Partner Spotlight
AIKO is a global-leading new energy technology company, focusing on the R&D manufacturing of solar generation products and PV-Storage-Charging integrated solutions, providing customers with solar cells, ABC (All Back Contact) modules and scenario-based packaged solutions. With the mission of “Empowering transformation towards a carbon-free era”, AIKO keeps on pursuing extreme innovation and cutting-edge technology. They are a very welcome addition to our consortium and are keen to partner across the consortium to work on Agrisolar Projects! Please reach out to Ivan Zhang to know more.
Regen Farmers Mutual helps Australian farmers aggregate their market power and landscape impact. In the CRC, Regen aims to help other partners in how farming integrates with Agrisolar and in how new business ventures can emerge with Agrisolar and individual farms / groups of farms. They also aim to connect farmers who are already engaged in landscape-led regeneration and can work with other partners to commence Landscape Impact Programs. We are thrilled to welcome them to the consortium and if you have interest in being introduced, please reach out to the Bid Team who will put you in touch.
ElecSome is bringing commercially viable and environmentally sustainable solar panel waste management solutions to Australia – the World's First Solar Panel Upcycling Plant
PV Recycling will be a huge component of creating an Agrisolar value chain in Australia. We are thrilled to involve ElecSome as a partner that will support our CRC to embed circularity in this value chain! Please feel free to reach out to Chitra Sulkan for more information.
Bid Progress Update
A BIG & timely reminder – We still want your project plans!
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.
Don’t forget to tell us if you need partner support in designing a project. If you are lacking a partner, please reach out and we will match you to the best of our ability!
Final project plans MUST be received by 17 April 2025. We look forward to including these in our application in a summary that will show we are ready to deliver impact from Day 1 of operation.
Agrisolar in the Media
From PV Magazine:
Mibet, a Chinese mounting system supplier, has completed what it claims is the biggest agrivoltaic installation in Japan. The solar modules for the 4 MW project in Fukushima prefecture were installed on Mibet’s agrivoltaic mounting system.
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