5B Maverick solar

While the efficiency of solar cells will always be important, scaling innovation in sustainable cell technology and solar deployment, is the new game in town. With hydrogen exports and production of green metals in its sights, Australia has some breakthrough tech coming down the pike, as pv magazine Australia’s Natalie Filatoff reports.

Sydney-based solar pioneer 5B has today announced it will acquire IXL Solar’s Adelaide-based manufacturing business, with pv magazine Australia told the purchase will see 5B buy everything but the name, effective immediately.

Rising efficiencies and the plummeting cost of solar modules over the past few years, recent months notwithstanding, are leading innovators toward ideas that may look unusual in the current tracker-dominated world of large-scale solar parks. Advocates of the new approaches argue that they leave traditional models looking decidedly flat by comparison.

In efforts to improve PV performance by helping modules keep their cool, the Martin Green team is going for 10 degrees lower operating temperatures. Cherry-picking the most practical approaches could deliver 50% extended project life.

A small number of utility-scale PV arrays of an entirely different nature are taking shape Down Under. Over the past six years, Aussie solar startup 5B has been developing and deploying its pre-assembled and relocatable Maverick mounting structures “on a shoestring budget.” But with a major solar developer having joined as a strategic investor, the company is now looking to make prefabricated arrays a mainstream option for utility-scale PV.

AES, one of the world’s largest power companies, has made a strategic investment in Sydney-based pre-fabricated solar array manufacturer 5B to meet the growing needs of its customers for solar.

Risen Energy Australia has been confirmed as a solar panel partner on the Resilient Energy Collective bushfire relief campaign, which aims to install stand-alone solar and Tesla battery systems at up to 100 sites around Australia.

Sydney-based pre-fabricated solar array manufacturer 5B has selected Enphase IQ 7+ microinverters for the Resilient Energy Collective bushfire relief campaign. The initiative is looking to install stand-alone solar and Tesla battery systems at up to 100 sites around Australia affected by bushfires and floods.

A new venture funded by the Cannon-Brookes family is looking to install stand-alone solar and battery systems at up to 100 sites around Australia affected by recent bushfires and floods.

A number of massive PV projects have been proposed for Australia’s north, with the concept built around clean power exports to Southeast Asia. Is it Desertec Down Under? Proponents are certainly hoping for more success.