ARENA Invests $21.72 Million in Solar Robotics Manufacturing Facilities Across Melbourne and Brisbane, Australia

The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) will provide up to USD 21.72 million under Round 2 of its Solar Sunshot Program, split between facilities in Victoria and Queensland.

One plant will produce robots that install solar panels, and the other autonomous systems will drive foundation piles.

Manufacturing for the hardest work on site

According to ARENA, the facilities are intended to lift productivity, cut construction costs, and relieve workforce constraints as large-scale solar deployment accelerates, in line with the agency's ultra-low-cost solar goal.

"Installing foundations and placing panels are two of the most labour-intensive parts of solar farm construction. It's hard work in the hot sun," said ARENA CEO Darren Miller.

"Australia needs to install large volumes of solar quickly and cost-effectively. Local manufacturing and automation can improve the way solar farms are built by reducing construction costs and making installation faster, safer, and more efficient, an important part of ARENA's ultra-low-cost solar vision.

"Manufacturing these technologies in Australia will help to strengthen local supply chains, develop specialist skills, and give solar projects better access to advanced construction equipment when and where it is needed."

Miller said the projects will move technologies already demonstrated in Australian conditions into locally manufactured products deployable at scale.

Luminous targets 100 LUMI robots by 2029

The larger share of the funding, up to USD 12.43 million, goes to Luminous Robotics for a Melbourne facility producing its autonomous solar panel installation robots, known as LUMIs. The company expects the plant to support the manufacture and deployment of roughly 100 LUMI robots by 2029.

Luminous emerged from ARENA's 2024 Solar Challenge, an initiative created to crowdsource ideas worldwide on reducing the cost of large-scale solar.

The agency then backed demonstrations of the LUMI robots at solar farms in Victoria and New South Wales, where the machines were tested under Australian construction and environmental conditions. The new grant takes the technology from field demonstration to industrial-scale manufacturing.

"We've proven LUMI on real solar farms in Australia, in the heat and dust, doing some of the hardest work on site. With ARENA's support, the next step is to turn that into scale," said Tenzin Crouch, General Manager of Luminous Robotics Australia.

"Building a production line in Melbourne, delivering our first hundred robots, and then growing from there. If Australia is going to build renewable energy at the scale and speed we need, robotics will have an important role to play, and we are building it."

Built Robotics chooses Queensland for piling operations

The remaining amount, up to USD 9.29 million, goes to Built Robotics Australia, which will establish a Brisbane manufacturing hub and operations centre for autonomous piling systems used in utility-scale solar construction.

The facility will manufacture and deploy 12 robotic piling systems, automating what the company describes as one of the most labour-intensive stages of solar farm construction.

The project builds on earlier ARENA-supported deployments of the company's autonomous piling technology in Australia and will establish domestic capability to manufacture, integrate, and test piling systems for solar projects.

"Australia has shown the world that construction robotics and physical AI work in the field. Now we're going to build that technology here," said Paul Kelly, Vice President of Business Development at Built Robotics.

"Our Brisbane hub will make Queensland a home for autonomous solar construction, creating skilled local jobs and a supply chain that serves projects in Australia, building on nearly a decade of work we've done here."

A USD 593.56 million push for local solar manufacturing

Taken together, the two projects aim to give Australia manufacturing capacity at two key points in the solar farm construction process.

ARENA says moving proven robotics into larger-scale production and deployment can help create a domestic equipment supply chain for the country's expanding large-scale solar industry.

The grants are drawn from the USD 593.56 million Solar Sunshot Program, which ARENA delivers to support innovation in Australia's solar PV manufacturing sector.

Announced by the Australian Government in March 2024, the program is designed to uncover and support innovation that drives scale and diversity in a critical industry.

According to ARENA, it aims to leverage Australia's strong renewable energy potential, high-quality and abundant raw materials, and long track record of research and development excellence so the country can strengthen and diversify its supply chains and create economic opportunities.