Hidden among thick bushland in the outer suburbs of southern Sydney sits an expansive facility housing a technological breakthrough.
It’s here that Australian company SunDrive Solar makes its “special sauce”: a new – top secret – formula that it says has solved “a very high value problem”.
Its big innovation? Finding a way to replace the silver used in solar cells with copper, which was previously thought impossible.
“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.
“Copper is also highly in demand, but it’s 1,000 times more abundant, and 100 times lower cost.”
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.
But some experts question whether the $A22.7bn ($15bn; £11.8bn) package, which comprises tax incentives, loans, and kick-starter grants – is enough to meet those lofty ambitions.
And climate scientists say that if Australia wants to be a major player in the net zero transition, it needs to stop peddling fossil fuels.
Australia’s economy has long been powered by its natural resources, such as coal, gas and iron ore.
But its critical minerals – many of which underpin crucial low emissions technologies – are exported raw, and refined abroad, predominantly by China.
