The Victorian Minister for Environment, Climate Change and Innovation, Gavin Jennings, has launched the Victoria-Suntech Advanced Solar Facility at Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne.

Heading up the VSASF will be Professor Min Gu, Director of the Swinburne Centre for Micro-Photonics, and Dr. Zhengrong Shi, Suntech’s Chairman and CEO, who is also a fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering.

According to Professor Gu, the facility will allow Swinburne researchers to work closely with Suntech throughout the research and development stages. This will ensure that their technology can be easily transferred to the production line and complement Suntech’s industry-leading PlutoTM solar cell technology.

Dr. Zhengrong Shi commented that “As solar reaches grid parity, in Australia and around the world, we are powering a revolution that will permanently redefine how the world uses energy.”

BP Solar will close its Australian solar-cell factory by early next year to focus on bigger, lower-cost operations offshore. The plant will close by the end of March, shedding about 200 jobs.

The solar-cell factory at Homebush is the largest such facility in Australia but the smallest solar cell plant operated by BP. Each year, the factory makes cells capable of producing a total of 50 megawatts. Many solar cell plants are twenty times this size and BP says that the Homebush plant is not capable of sufficient expansion to make it competitive.

Overseas plants are also closer to supplies of silicon wafers which he BP plant flies in from China or the United States. China, along with Germany and Japan, buys metallurgical grade silicon from Australia, and sells it back as semiconductor wafers costing 100 times as much.

Spark Solar Australia is planning to build a $70 million solar cell factory in Canberra.

The factory will produce solar cells used in the manufacture of solar panels. CEO Michelle McCann says that initially most of the factory’s production would be exported and that they expect to pre-sell almost all of their output for the first five years.

The company hopes to build the factory, which could generate more than 100 jobs, next year with sites in Hume and Mitchell being favoured. The company is also considering sites in Queanbeyan and Wollongong and is seeking help from the ACT Government before committing to Canberra

Solar panel installers in urban areas are reporting that between 50 and 70% of orders were being canceled. In rural areas, about 30% of orders are being canceled. According to the Clean Energy Council, one installed has had 98% of orders canceled.

The cancellations result from the means test placed on the rebate for domestic solar panel installation in last weeks budget. From midnight on Tuesday, a family that earns more than $100,000 a year can no longer claim the rebate of up to $8000 on a solar photovoltaic system for their home.

The lost business will cost installers millions of dollars. Some staff have already been laid off and other installers have abandoned plans to recruit more staff.

Because the change does not require legislation, it cannot be overturned by the Senate. Opposition Climate Change Spokesman, Greg Hunt, commented that "This is a decision which is not only destructive to small business people and the environment, but it was taken in stealth and the Parliament has been entirely excluded from having any say,"

A project to build the what is claimed will be world’s largest solar power generating plant has been launched by the Australian Climate Change Minister, Penny Wong.

The plant, expected to cost $420 million, will be built in the Swan Hill and Mildura region of northern Victoria. When complete, it will generate 154 megawatts – enough electricity to power about 45,000 homes, using heliostat-concentrated photovoltaic generators.

The project was originally promised by the former Howard government but it could not proceed without commitment of funding from private enterprise. The Victorian energy retailer, TRUenergy, has now committed $290 million to the project and the Victorian Government has added $50 million to the Commonwealth contribution of $80 million. TRUenergy is a subsidiary of CLP Holdings, a Hong Kong power utility. The project is being led by Melbourne-based Solar Systems in which TRUenergy has a 20% stake.

Construction will begin in 2009 with the plant beginning to generate power in 2010 and being fully operational in 2013. It will create 950 construction jobs and 44 long-term jobs.

Update (April 14, 2008):

The Boeing Company today announced a third multimillion-dollar contract with Solar Systems for concentrator photovoltaic cell assemblies. Under the terms of the new contract, Spectrolab Inc, a wholly owned Boeing subsidiary, will provide solar cell assemblies capable of generating more than 350 megawatts of electricity. The cells will be used in the new 154-megawatt solar power station to be built in Victoria and in other power stations located throughout Australia and the United States.