Robotics company Luminous has secured A$4.9 million ($3.3 million) in government funding to deploy its fleet of artificial intelligence-powered solar installation robots, marking the first award under the Australian Renewable Energy Agency’s $100 million Solar ScaleUp Challenge.

The project will deploy five Luminous LUMI robots at two major solar farms, aiming to accelerate construction and reduce labor costs as the country advances its shift to ultra-low-cost solar power.

AI-driven Automation to Cut Costs, Improve Safety

LUMI is a robotic pick-and-place system that autonomously installs solar panels onto racking structures, allowing human workers to handle final securing.

The technology has already demonstrated cost and efficiency gains at U.S. sites and could reduce solar farm costs by up to 6.2 percent in Australia, the company said.

Luminous said the robots can increase installation speeds by up to 3.5 times and reduce the need for heavy manual labor, which remains one of the most demanding aspects of utility-scale solar construction.

“With LUMI, we’re not just introducing a robot — we’re setting out to redefine the standard for how solar farms are built,” Luminous CEO Jay M. Wong said in a statement.

First Fleet Deployment in Australia

The LUMI robots will be deployed at the 440-megawatt Neoen Culcairn Solar Farm in New South Wales and the 250 MW Engie Goorambat East Solar Farm in Victoria. The rollout will be carried out in partnership with Equans, a global engineering and construction firm.

ARENA CEO Darren Miller said automation technologies like LUMI are critical to lowering solar costs and achieving the agency’s target of installing solar at 30 cents per watt and a levelized cost of electricity below $20 per megawatt-hour.

“To achieve net zero, Australia will need immense amounts of solar power at ultra-low cost,” Miller said. “Solutions like LUMI are key to reducing costs and maintaining Australia’s leading role in solar innovation.”

Backing Solar Innovation

The award is part of ARENA’s broader push to make Australia a clean energy “superpower.” The agency has committed more than $388 million to over 200 solar research and development projects since 2009.

Although the Solar ScaleUp Challenge has closed, ARENA stated that it will continue to support technologies and business models that can deliver large-scale solar at lower costs.

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