$70m solar project to create 115 jobs

Canberra Times
Monday 13/10/2008 Page: 1

A $70 million high-tech solar cell factory to be built next year, possibly in Canberra or Queanbeyan, will create 115 skilled jobs, with exports worth more than $400 million to Europe's booming solar markets.

Spark Solar Australia, a Canberra based company co-founded by former Australian National University photovoltaic engineer Michelle McCann, will produce 19 trillion solar cells a year - enough to power 20,000 homes. The company has already attracted start-tip capital from a Swiss investment hind and four key commercial partners in Germany. One of the world's leading solar technology and commercialisation experts, German physicist Dr Peter Fath, has joined Spark Solar Australia as company chairman.

Global demand for solar cells is so strong that Spark Solar Australia is now finalising a contract to sell half its output to one of Europe's biggest solar panel manufacturers. Dr McCann said, "The market for solar cells is enormous and there are not enough cells being made globally to meet demand. Even before the factory is built, we expect to pre-sell almost all of our output for the first five years." The global market for solar cells is growing at a faster rate than markets for laptops, mobile phones and digital cameras.

Last year, the global photovoltaics market grew by 70 per cent, to $A21 billion. Dr McCann said the Spark Solar Australia factory would inject $84 million into the region's economy in its first five years and provide skilled jobs for science and engineering graduates.

"Australia is a world leader in solar technology. But sadly the small manufacturing base that exists here means that a lot of really excellent talent and research has gone overseas in the past. We want to change that." The company will initially export 90 per cent of its product and will be Australia's biggest manufacturer of solar cells.

A state-of-the-art factory, designed and prefabricated in Germany, will be built next year, with the solar cell production beginning in early 2010. The company is looking at potential factory sites in Home and Mitchell, as well as Queanbeyan and Wollongong.

"We would prefer to be close to the ANU for collaboration purposes, but of course we have to consider other business factors including state or territory government incentives. The incentives that other state governments otter are very attractive compared with those available in the ACT.

"Given the current global financial market turndown, if a future ACT Government could provide a loan guarantee to Spark Solar Australia, it would be enormously beneficial to our financing ability and would definitely send a decision to establish in Canberra instead of elsewhere." Dr McCann said manufacturing solar cells offshore - for example, in China - would provide only a marginal financial advantage because labor costs were about 8 per cent of total costs.