Funding

Current Overall Funding Parameters

$100m from Australian Government from 2009 to June 2012
R&D funding to be split 50:50 between PV and CST, to be reviewed after 12 months
60% R&D funding to be allocated through competitive process open to public and private researchers in Aust
40% R&D funding set aside for core research projects, of which $15m allocated to Foundation Projects

Round 1 Funding

OUTCOMES FROM ROUND 1 RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT GRANTS

Round 1 of the ASI solar grants funding program has been completed with the ASI Board making decisions on which projects will be made offers of funding at its meeting on 10th to 11th December 2009. The response to this Round has been outstanding and there were a 87 proposals which resulted in this round being highly competitive. A number of excellent projects have been supported, however ASI recognises that many projects have not been successful and some proponents will be disappointed.
The funding parameters under which the ASI made its Round 1 decisions were:

$100m from the Australian Government from 2009 to June 2012 for all ASI activity to support R&D Funding, Skills development, Knowledge Building, ASI Operations, Governance, Communications and R&D Portfolio management.

R&D funding to be split 50:50 between photovoltaics (PV) and concentrating solar thermal (CST) technologies, with this split to be reviewed in July 2010.
Core Funding: 40% of ASI R&D funding for core research projects to be lead by CSIRO, UNSW and ANU on a merit basis.
Open Competitive Funding: 60% R&D funding to be allocated through a competitive process open to all public and private researchers undertaking research in Australia.

Basic projects could seek funding of up to $1m for proof of concept research and did not require matching contributions;
Applied projects could seek funding of up to $5m and were required to achieve at least 1:1 leverage on ASI funds to accelerate the path to commercialisation.

Significant funding will remain available to support future funding rounds which will address areas of strategic priority in line with the ASI’s objectives.
The ASI has been given the role under the Australian Government’s Solar Flagships Initiative of disseminating the economic and technical learnings from the Solar Flagships projects.
ASI has a remit to seek additional funding sources to support it’s R&D and knowledge building activities.

Outcomes of Round 1.
The ASI received 87 applications for funding, with requests totalling $177m to support aggregate proposed project values of $470m. Two thirds of projects were in the photovoltaics (PV) area and one third were in concentrating solar thermal (CST). A small number of proposals outside the two core areas were also received in the areas of solar resource mapping, integration, data and knowledge building across the solar sector

Projects approved for funding

Five projects for a total ASI funding of $11.1m with total project values of $30.9m, have been supported. ASI will be entering immediate due diligence and negotiations with this group to sign contracts. A strict deadline on contract completion will be imposed so that this funding can be made available to future funding calls should negotiations prove unsuccessful.

The five projects can be categorised as:

Two Applied PV (1 Core funding, 1 Competitive)
One Basic OPV (Competitive funding )
One Core Applied CST and 1 Basic Competitive CST

The 5 projects are:

University of New South Wales: Development and Commercialisation of High Efficiency Silicon Solar Cell Technology. $3.972m funding to support a $12.75m core funded research project..
University of Newcastle: Fabrication of Thermionic Devices Using Directional Solidification / Sintering Processes for High Temperature Concentrating Solar Thermal Applications. $515,000 funding to support a $700,000 basic research project.
Australian National University: Plasmonics for high efficiency Photovoltaic Solar Cells using nanotechnology to capture more light. $1.67m funding to support a $5.84m applied research funded project.
University of Queensland: New Materials and Architectures for Organic Solar Cells – Beyond the Shockley-Queisser Limit. $945,000 funding to support a $1.945m basic research funded project.
CSIRO and the Australian National University: Advanced steam generating receivers for high concentration solar collectors. $4.084m funding to support a $9.7m core funded research project.

The ASI Board has authorised further discussions in respect of several other promising projects arising from the first round of applications. Further announcements will be made pending the outcome of commercial-in-confidence discussions with the relevant applicants and their collaborative partners.

The ASI is committed to assisting the Australian solar research and commercial community to learn from and build on the outcomes of this funding round and will be offering feedback to all applicants to assist them in preparing for future merit based funding rounds. The ASI aims to encourage excellence, collaboration and commercial potential and to maximise investments from industry and other project partners. The ASI Board have ensured funding is available for future rounds.

Any questions can be directed to or by phoning the ASI on 02 4960 6300 .

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