Australia’s only solar PV manufacturing plant was opened last week by the Prime Minister of Australia, the Honorable Julia Gillard. The plant, owned by Australian solar PV manufacturer Tindo Solar, is based in Adelaide’s Technology Park – a 65 hectare site located 12km north if the CBD close the University of South Australia’s Mawson Lakes campus. The opening of the facility means that Australian customers can now buy ‘Australian Made’ solar panels.
Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, stated that the opening of the plant put to bed the myth that Australia cannot create a new innovative high quality manufacturing business and compete with overseas products and that the success of Tindo Solar ‘shows that [our] future lies in a high skills, high wage, high innovation economy’ and:
“that the world class Tindo Solar manufacturing plant shows that something could be done in the face of Climate Change through installation of a solar system like the Tindo-Karra 240, which assist the environment while creating new manufacturing jobs in Australia”
The Prime Minister also acknowledged the impact of cheap imported products on the Australia Solar industry, and particularly a business like Tindo Solar, and indicated that the Australian Government is currently exploring the options available to them to support Tindo and companies like them. Solar Choice Brokers receive regular enquiries about Australian Made solar panels and inverters, indeed Tindo’s Manager of People and Business stated that the interest they had received so far “confirms [our] belief that Australians want the right to select an Australian made solar module that has quality and performance embedded in each panel and at a price not a great deal different to imported panels.”
The Tindo Plant has a 60MW capacity, allowing it to produce 240,000 panels per annum, and will produce the Tindo-Karra 240 panel along with future panels developed by the company. Tindo hopes to export to Asia Pacific within 12 months, taking advantage of the growing solar industry in India and China as well as their increasing Renewable Energy Targets. The Indian market is forecast to be worth $60 billion over the next 10 years while China is increasing its Renewable Energy Target, partially to absorb some of the country’s excess stock, but also in recognition of the rising cost of energy and the important role renewable energy has to play in the future.
Image via Tindo Solar
© 2012 Solar Choice Pty Ltd
