{"id":3896,"date":"2019-10-16T19:21:35","date_gmt":"2019-10-16T19:21:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/?p=3896"},"modified":"2019-10-16T19:21:35","modified_gmt":"2019-10-16T19:21:35","slug":"nsw-project-to-revolutionise-solar-construction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2019\/10\/16\/nsw-project-to-revolutionise-solar-construction\/","title":{"rendered":"NSW PROJECT TO REVOLUTIONISE SOLAR CONSTRUCTION"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Australia\u2019s solar industry is set for a major boost thanks to research involving a startup company and UNSW Sydney, supported by the NSW Government to embed solar panels into building materials.<br \/>\nMinister for Energy Matt Kean said the project with startup Solspan Pty Ltd &#8211; supported through the NSW Government\u2019s Boosting Business Innovation\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.industry.nsw.gov.au\/business-and-industry-in-nsw\/innovation-and-research\/boosting-business-innovation-program\">Program<\/a>, aimed to integrate solar panels into sheet metal for use on building roofs and walls.<br \/>\n\u201cIt\u2019s fantastic to see more grants going to innovative renewable energy technology.<br \/>\n\u201cI encourage our entrepreneurs, engineers and scientists to think big about our future energy needs. It\u2019s innovation like this, that will make energy more affordable, reliable and clean and will shape our 21<sup>st<\/sup>\u00a0century grid,\u201d Mr Kean said.<br \/>\nSmall Business Minister Damien Tudehope said the $18 million Innovation Program was all about helping businesses tap into the top-notch research of the State\u2019s universities and the CSIRO to develop new products and services.<br \/>\n\u201cBringing together great business and academic minds gives our entrepreneurs confidence to invest in their ideas and support to help them succeed.\u201d<br \/>\nSolspan managing director Wade Blazley, a builder for 40 years, said a matching $15,000 TechVoucher\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.industry.nsw.gov.au\/business-and-industry-in-nsw\/innovation-and-research\/techvouchers\">grant<\/a>\u00a0under the Boost program helped him work with UNSW to integrate solar photovoltaic cells into his \u2018Solspan\u2019 sheet metal building panel.<br \/>\n\u201cOur integrated solar building panels would be used to construct roofs and even walls on buildings, making the separate installation of solar panels unnecessary.\u201d<br \/>\nAssociate Professor Anita Ho-Bailllie from UNSW&#8217;s School of Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy Engineering said researchers had successfully integrated thin film silicon solar cells into Solspan\u2019s sheet metal panels.<br \/>\n\u201cNow we need to make the solar building panels weatherproof by putting a transparent and flexible protective layer on top, and ensuring they are structurally sound to get building approval to Australian standards.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Australia\u2019s solar industry is set for a major boost thanks to research involving a startup company and UNSW Sydney, supported by the NSW Government to embed solar panels into building materials. Minister for Energy Matt Kean said the project with startup Solspan Pty Ltd &#8211; supported through the NSW Government\u2019s Boosting Business Innovation\u00a0Program, aimed to &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2019\/10\/16\/nsw-project-to-revolutionise-solar-construction\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;NSW PROJECT TO REVOLUTIONISE SOLAR CONSTRUCTION&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nswnews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3896"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3896\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}