The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) announced its biggest single stake in solar panel research and development on Monday, revealing the funds would go towards 20 projects investigating ways to advance the technology.
The announcement comes as solar energy commitments rise across Australia, with a record number of large-scale solar project investments and household rooftop solar installations during the June quarter, according to the Clean Energy Regulator.
The latest round of ARENA's Ultra Low-Cost Solar PV Research and Development program opened in July 2025 and offered $60 million in funding to projects that could lower the cost of large-scale solar farms.
But the agency revised its funding goals after reviewing the proposals and assessing their potential, acting chief executive Chris Faris said.
"When we saw the quality of applications, we decided to increase funding to support a broader portfolio of high-quality projects," he said.
Many of the 20 successful projects will be pursued at universities, including UNSW and the Australian National University, and most will investigate ways to make cells and modules more efficient and durable.
The ultimate goal of the investments is to lower the levelised cost of electricity from large-scale solar farms to less than $20 per megawatt hour, and Mr Faris said local researchers were well placed to achieve it.
"Australia has played a leading role in the development of solar technology and these projects will help ensure we continue to strengthen that position," he said.
"The portfolio brings together a mix of near-term improvements and breakthrough technologies that have the potential to lower costs, improve performance and accelerate the deployment of solar energy, both in Australia and around the world."
ARENA's investments include projects testing ways to make solar panels better suited to Australian conditions, using artificial intelligence technology to identify the best materials, and using cells in tandem for greater efficiency.
Research into tandem solar cells, which stacked perovskites on top of silicon, had potential to deliver significant energy gains, UNSW researcher Prof Anita Ho-Baillie said.
ARENA funding would allow her research team to experiment with the cells over five years.
"Our next round of testing will prove this technology's ability to cope with UV light and mechanical stresses," she said.
"We'd love to be able to see it through, to get Si-perovskite technology to the stage of being commercially viable for clean power generation."
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