The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) launched its new investment plan, defining the distribution of the $800 million USD fund over the next few years, with solar PV innovation one of the main new areas of focus - including perovskite-based PV.
The plan, titled 'Innovating Energy', puts forward four new priorities and all new funding applications have been assessed using these criteria. Among other points, ARENA will prioritize improving cell and module efficiency in silicon, perovskite and tandem cells. It will also focus on durability of PV modules with new encapsulation techniques to address degradation and new tools to uncover defects. It will also look across the range of balance of system (BOS) technologies to reduce costs in wiring, switches and inverters. New products with flexible and transparent applications will also be examined with an emphasis on turning R&D into manufacturing supply chains.
ARENA did not specify how much of its funding would go towards PV innovation.