SunDrive's Maia Schweizer thinks Australia has what it takes to become a solar panel manufacturing hub
“Silver is expensive, scarce and environmentally disastrous, and it limits how much solar can be rolled out around the world,” explains chief commercial officer Maia Schweizer.The start-up is one of the beneficiaries of the government’s Future Made in Australia plan - a suite of policies that aim to turn the country into a “renewable energy superpower” by investing in homegrown green industries.
Lithium - which is used in the batteries that store renewable energy and power electric vehicles - is one example.The Future Made in Australia policy - which was formally announced in April - seeks to change that, by offering tax breaks and loans to companies seeking to process critical minerals at home.
Thanks to a A$400m federal loan, it is building one of the world’s largest alumina refineries near the coastal city of Gladstone, which it says will create hundreds of local jobs. Currently, one in three Australian households have solar panels, the highest rate in the world, and yet only 1% are made locally - with China responsible for
“If we really wanted to be a green energy superpower, we wouldn’t be relentlessly pursuing customers for our fossil fuels,” she says.“There is a very deep contradiction at the heart of the two policies,” says Prof Bill Hare, chief executive of Climate Analytics and author of numerous UN climate change reports.To understand how, Ms Hemming says you need to “follow the money”.
Some energy experts have also cast doubt over the business rationale behind green hydrogen - given the industry is still in its infancy and riddled with unknowns.