EXCLUSIVE Australia to lose ANU solar breakthrough

Rosslyn Beeby
Tuesday, 3 October 2006

Australia is set to lose a revolutionary solar technology developed by researchers at the Australian National University to overseas commercial investors.

The world-first solar sliver cells technology has won five major national science awards in the past two years and is tipped to make solar energy cost-competitive with coal within less than a decade.

Origin Energy has confirmed commercial manufacture of ANU's solar sliver cell technology is poised to go offshore, possibly to Germany or the United States, to capitalise on government investment incentives for solar energy in those countries.

Renewable energy experts say the move offshore will deprive Australia of a big slice of the world's rapidly expanding solar technology market, estimated to be worth more than $100billion by 2010.

"We will become clients of our own technology, importing back the expertise we lost," Murdoch University professor of energy studies Dr Philip Jennings said.

The wafer-thin solar sliver cells were invented by ANU researchers Professor Andrew Blakers and Dr Klaus Weber, with support from Dr Vernie Everett, of the ANU and the Australian Research Council's Centre of Excellence.

The sliver cells will cut the cost of photovoltaic panels by around 75 per cent by using 90 per cent less silicon. Their potential to make photovoltaic panels more affordable and accelerate uptake of solar energy has been compared to the global information revolution created by the internet search engine Google.

Origin Energy acquired the base patent for the sliver cells from ANU and has invested more than $30million to commercialise the technology, including building a pilot plant in Adelaide.

But Origin's general manager Tony Wood told The Canberra Times that an investment of more than $100million was needed to scale up to commercial manufacture of the technology.

"We are looking for an international partner. That kind of money just isn't around in Australia," he said.

Rigorous testing of the sliver cells at the company's pilot plant had proved that the technology was commercially viable.

"It came up sparkling every time, but to move on up to manufacturing at a significant scale is problematic," Mr Wood said. "The question is where do we locate a large-scale manufacturing plant with access to a thriving renewable energy market - the answer is probably not in Australia because the market here is too small at present."

Origin has also used its recently issued annual report to criticise the Federal Government's inaction on climate change, claiming the "lack of a long-term framework for applying a carbon cost is a major impediment to the investment in the energy sector". Australian Greens energy spokeswoman Senator Christine Milne said moving the solar sliver cell technology offshore would be a tragedy for Australian innovation.

"It's a fantastic technology and would be a tragedy for the ANU and the whole country to lose the opportunities that could be gained by developing and manufacturing it in Australia," she said.

Professor Jennings said Australia had been a pioneer and a world leader in developing solar technology but the Federal Government had stripped solar energy of research funding, leaving companies like Origin with little choice other than to locate manufacturing offshore.

"It is now an industry in decline, with no local industry to develop and market new technologies," he said.

Federal Environment Minister Ian Campbell chose not to comment on the possible move offshore for the sliver cell technology, but emailed a statement claiming the recently announced $75million Solar Cities program would unite "local governments, power utilities and the private sector to roll out the one of the most advanced programs of its type in the world".

But Professor Jennings said the program would "deliver nothing" and offered no long-term incentives or policies to encourage investment in renewable energies. "It is stop-start funding that doesn't focus on research and development," he said.

President of the Alternative Technology Association Michael O'Connell said there was enormous public interest in solar sliver cell technology because there was a growing demand in Australia for affordable solar energy.