The Australian Government has signed a new memorandum of understanding with Germany for research and development into solar technologies.

The Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, Senator Kim Carr signed the MoU between the Australian Solar Institute (ASI) and the Deutches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR) - Germany's national research centre for aeronautics and space.


The agreement builds on the MoU that the ASI already has in place with Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute, which focuses on solar photovoltaic technologies. 


The MoU aims to foster cooperation in a number of areas, including:

  • collaboration on CSP development and deployment, including sharing views on future opportunities and challenges for CSP in a global context so as to help focus R&D on known research gaps and on overcoming barriers;
  • provision of peer review expertise;
  • joint R&D projects between DLR and Australian research bodies supported by the ASI; and
  • support for solar skills development and education in Australia and Germany, for example through the provision of bilateral educational scholarships and exchange of research personnel.


The ASI and DLR have already agreed a number of priority activities for immediate commencement, including high temperature CSP modelling and high temperature receiver performance and analysis. 


The CSIRO will initially lead the scoping of Australia’s involvement in these areas, with the ASI seeking to broaden Australia’s involvement in the near future.  The ASI will fund activities under the MoU from its existing international engagement budget. ASI funding decisions are taken by the ASI Board and are informed by a robust and independent merit-based assessment process.


The Australian Solar Institute is part of the Government’s $5 billion Clean Energy Initiative.


Further Information is available at www.australiansolarinstitute.com.au.