Solar Startup Sundrive’s Copper for Silver Innovation Finds Takers In China

Sydney, Australia  based Solar Start up Sundrive Solar, which seeks to replace the use of silver with copper in solar panels has signed a key agreement with Chinese manufacturers to  commercialise its innovation further.

SunDrive has signed a Joint Development Agreement (JDA) with global solar equipment leaders Maxwell Technologies and Vistar Equipment Technology to co-develop and distribute commercial-scale direct-copper plating tools, to unlock the full potential of high-efficiency heterojunction (HJT) solar cells.

Last year SunDrive announced a collaboration with global solar manufacturer Trinasolar to pursue the establishment of domestic solar manufacturing in Australia. This joint-development partnership with Maxwell and Vistar represents a bigger push to industrialise SunDrive’s technology from pilot-scale to commercial-scale, to enable deployment in the manufacturing context.

By combining SunDrive’s breakthrough copper metallisation technology with Maxwell and Vistar’s industrialisation expertise and extensive market reach, the firm hopes that the partnership will pave the way for rapid scale-up and future deployment in domestic and global manufacturing lines.

Maxwell is the global market leader in HJT solar cell production equipment, supplying more than 80% of installed capacity worldwide. SunDrive, Maxwell, and Vistar have collaborated closely for over five years, achieving multiple technical milestones. Notably, SunDrive and Maxwell jointly achieved a world-record cell efficiency of 25.54% in 2021, and have co-authored several publications in leading scientific journals, including Nature, underscoring the depth of the parties ongoing technological cooperation.

“This partnership is a clear validation of SunDrive’s strategy: to focus on world-class solar innovation, right here in Australia, and partner with the best in the industry to bring it to market. Maxwell and Vistar’s extensive track record in bringing commercial-scale solar cell production equipment rapidly to market, and distributing at-scale, represents the ideal launchpad for SunDrive to take our technology to Australia and the world,” said Natalie Malligan, CEO of SunDrive.

Replacing Silver Seen As a Key To Lower Costs In Solar

The shift from silver to copper has become a key hurdle to cross for solar manufacturing. As silver becomes more expensive and supply chains tighten, copper offers a relatively scalable, cost-effective, and sustainable alternative. Solar already accounts for almost 20% of global silver consumption, even as solar’s contribution to global energy is below 2%. That makes it key to find alternatives to silver to sustain solar growth. This collaboration helps support HJT’s long-term viability by addressing one of its biggest material constraints.

Gong Qing, General Manager of Vistar, said: “We have maintained long-term attention and experimentation with copper plating technology. Starting with seed-layer copper in 2022, we then turned our focus to direct plating technology developed by Maxwell in 2024. Witnessing the advantages of this technology has further strengthened our confidence in it. We look forward to generating new synergies through this cooperation with Maxwell and SunDrive, helping HJT technology expand into broader markets.”

SunDrive was co-founded by Vince Allen and David Hu in 2015 based on technology developed during Vince’s PhD research at UNSW. SunDrive’s investors include Blackbird Ventures, Main Sequence Ventures, Grok Ventures, the Clean Energy Finance Corporation and has received funding from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (Arena).