Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2669 actions· ✨ 89 recent

The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) awarded a AUD 25.3 million grant to Sydney-based startup SunDrive Solar to scale and commercialise its copper-metallisation solar cell technology at its Kurnell (New South Wales) facility, taking the process from R&D toward a 300 MW commercial-scale production line. The technology replaces silver — the metallisation material used in conventional solar cell manufacturing — with copper, a direct response to silver prices having nearly tripled over three years while the solar industry now consumes roughly a third of global industrial silver supply. The grant builds on an earlier AUD 14 million ARENA award and is delivered under the Advancing Renewables Program, with equipment partners Maxwell and Vistar supporting production-tool development, cost modelling and module testing.

The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) announced up to AUD 45 million in funding for Fortescue's Solar Innovation Hub, a 500 MW test bed within Fortescue's 1.5 GW solar PV development pipeline at the Cloudbreak Solar Farm in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. The funding uses a portfolio structure covering up to 10 individual demonstration projects under one agreement, including Built Robotics' automated pile-driving technology and 5B's rapid-deployment Maverick solar system, aimed at cutting installed solar costs and supporting ARENA's Ultra Low-Cost Solar goal of 30% module efficiency at 30 cents/watt installed cost by 2030. Global Trade Alert logged the grant as a trade-distorting subsidy to Fortescue's solar manufacturing and deployment activity.

On 21 October 2025, the Queensland Government announced an AUD 30 million investment via the Queensland Investment Corporation (QIC) into Silica Resources Australia (SRA), backing the Mourilyan Silica Sands Project roughly 30km south of Innisfail in Far North Queensland, near the Port of Mourilyan. The funding supports plant, equipment and land acquisition for a project producing high-purity silica sand and silica flour used in glass (including display/TFT glass), solar-panel manufacturing, semiconductors, fibreglass composites and foundry applications. Production is targeted to reach 360,000+ tonnes per year within 12 months and 750,000+ tonnes within 5 years, with Japan, South Korea and the US identified as target export markets.

Queensland's Crisafulli Government announced an AUD 200 million North West Energy Fund on 10 October 2025 as part of its five-year Energy Roadmap and the wider CopperString transmission project (AUD 2.4bn budgeted, following identified savings of AUD 2.1bn against the prior government's cost blowout). The Fund is delivered by Queensland Investment Corporation (QIC) and finances local generation, storage, gas, wind and solar projects in the North West Minerals Province -- Mount Isa, Cloncurry, Julia Creek and Richmond -- ahead of CopperString's Western Link. Market sounding with more than 20 organisations began in March 2026, and the Fund formally opened to investor proposals on 1 June 2026, with a requirement that supported projects reach commercial operation or deliver benefits by 2030.

The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) awarded up to AUD 46 million to Australian solar technology company 5B under Round 1A of the Solar Sunshot Program, the first funding decision under the AUD 1 billion program. The award comprises up to AUD 26 million in production credits tied to Australian-based manufacturing of 5B's "Maverick" prefabricated, prewired solar deployment system, plus a AUD 20 million capital grant for technology design improvements. The funding is intended to expand 5B's Adelaide manufacturing capacity to at least 200 MW of Maverick units per year over three years and is expected to cut the company's Australian production costs by 25%.

The Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC), Australia's government-owned green bank, approved a senior project finance loan of up to USD 47 million to Salt Lake Potash Ltd (ASX/AIM: SO4), part of a USD 138 million syndicated senior debt facility (alongside Taurus Mining Finance Fund No. 2) to build the Lake Way sulphate-of-potash (SOP) brine project near Wiluna, Western Australia. The facility funds construction of Australia's first greenfield SOP brine operation, part-powered by a 5MW solar farm and 2MW battery, targeted at cutting SOP production emissions by more than 30% versus conventional non-brine methods.