The Australian Renewable Vitality Company (ARENA) will make investments as much as A$45 million ($29.4 million) in Fortescue’s Photo voltaic Innovation Hub within the Pilbara of Western Australia with goals to considerably cut back the levellised price of utility-scale photo voltaic and speed up its broader deployment.
The hub will function a 500 MW take a look at mattress for rising expertise inside Fortescue’s deliberate 1.5 GW photo voltaic PV growth pipeline. The mission introduces a novel funding method, trialling a portfolio of as much as 10 particular person initiatives deploying a spread of applied sciences underneath one settlement aimed toward slicing prices, demonstrating technical and business feasibility, and sharing data throughout the photo voltaic PV and clear expertise sectors.
ARENA CEO, Darren Miller, mentioned the Photo voltaic Innovation Hub is a groundbreaking initiative that may assist drive down the price of photo voltaic power according to ARENA’s Extremely Low-Value Photo voltaic (ULCS) imaginative and prescient, whereas paving the best way for future improvements within the renewable power sector.
Miller mentioned: “Photo voltaic PV deployment is evolving as we discover new methods to cut back prices, streamline logistics and adapt to difficult environmental situations. These advances are serving to to decrease the levelised price of power (LCOE) and enhance business viability for the heavy industrial and onerous to abate sectors.
“This mission additionally represents a brand new approach for ARENA to offer funding, maximising our affect and fostering collaboration between Australia’s power innovators. By creating an area the place cutting-edge applied sciences could be examined and refined in real-world environments, we’re serving to to ship important price reductions as rapidly as potential for the advantage of each trade and the local weather.”
Fortescue has already launched two demonstration initiatives inside the hub. The primary, with Constructed Robotics, has trialled its automated pile-driving expertise on the Cloudbreak Photo voltaic Farm (pictured), showcasing the potential for robotics to remodel large-scale photo voltaic building. The second, with 5B, will take a look at its rapid-deployment Maverick photo voltaic expertise onsite from early 2026. Each improvements are being evaluated at Cloudbreak and, if profitable, are set to be scaled up in future phases of Fortescue’s photo voltaic growth pipeline.
The hub is anticipated to provide high-value insights into price drivers, validate a number of modern applied sciences and establish pathways to commercialisation, ARENA says. Co-locating improvements inside Fortescue’s Pilbara photo voltaic farms gives a singular alternative to evaluate and examine the affect of various approaches in a single operational and environmental setting. The data generated will help broader trade efforts to speed up photo voltaic PV adoption in difficult contexts and contribute to ARENA’s strategic goals round innovation and decarbonisation.
Fortescue Chief Govt Officer Metals and Operations, Dino Otranto, mentioned: “This chance to work with ARENA is a robust endorsement of Fortescue’s dedication to pioneering renewable power options at scale.
“The Photo voltaic Innovation Hub will permit us to trial and refine new applied sciences that enhance security, velocity up supply and drive down prices – serving to us and Australia speed up the transition to inexperienced power.”
The Photo voltaic Innovation Hub helps ARENA’s bold ULCS aim of 30% module effectivity at an put in price of 30 cents per watt by 2030. If delivered, Australia might attain a LCOE of <$20/MWh, which represents roughly one third of the price of at the moment’s photo voltaic PV. ARENA can also be trying past 2030, by means of analysis and growth actions that may drive additional price reductions by means of to 2040.
ULCS may also assist us obtain our aim of accelerating deployment to succeed in 1 TW of put in photo voltaic PV in Australia by 2050.
