November 2024 saw the opening of CSIRO’s new facility that prints solar panels. The Printed Photovoltaic Facility is in Clayton, Victoria, and cost $6.8 million. With this new infrastructure, CSIRO aims to create new industry opportunities and meet the growing demand for renewable energy.
The facility and its solar solutions are the next step towards accessible renewable energy for everyone. It is also capable of producing other flexible and printed technologies beyond solar. CSIRO has been researching flexible solar tech for over ten years. With the new facility established, production and testing have become far more economical with automated printing lines. CSIRO achieved a new efficiency record for its flexible solar technology in collaboration with researchers from the University of Cambridge, Monash University, the University of Sydney and the University of New South Wales.
The Printed Photovoltaics Facility received funding from Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) through the Australian Centre for Advanced Photovoltaics.
The facility’s printing line is pilot scale, a smaller version of the full-sized production line primarily for exploring the feasibility of the project. The system can produce over ten thousand solar cells in a day. The panels are used for testing real-world and novel applications. The solar cells contain a material called perovskite, which is made into ink and printed onto a roll of thin plastic film using roll-to-roll techniques.
Being flexible and lightweight, these panels are portable and could be used when traditional, rigid silicon panels are impractical. The panels could be applied in construction, disaster relief, space exploration, and personal uses, such as mobile phones or cars. CSIRO’s Executive Director of Digital, National Facilities and Collections, Professor Elanor Huntington, said “Through CSIRO’s new Printed PV Facility, industry partners can access both researcher expertise and specialised equipment to improve and apply flexible solar technology in novel ways, anywhere there is sunlight.”
CSIRO aims to make flexible solar panels more than just a laboratory study and is seeking industry partnerships to further advance and commercialise this technology. Renewable Energy Systems group leader, Dr. Anthony Chesman, said “We’re looking for partners to join us on the research and development journey and ultimately take this technology to market.”