Solar panel manufacturer SunDrive remains committed to plans to start a domestic manufacturing plant at the former Liddell Power Station despite cutting up to 35 jobs.
The Sydney-based company signed a memorandum of understanding with AGL in March to establish a manufacturing facility at the site as part of the federal government's $1 billion Sunshot program.
"Our plan is to produce in our first phase, hundreds of thousands of panels on this site, with the eventual goal of scaling that to millions of panels per year," SunDrive founder Vince Allen said at the event attended by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen.
The company announced this week that Mr Allen was moving to the role of chief technology officer as part of a restructure.
Thirty five jobs have also been cut as SunDrive "as it gears up for its next phase of commercialisation".
A spokeswoman said the job losses would not impact plans for local manufacturing.
"We remain in partnership with AGL under Memorandum of Understanding to jointly continue feasibility for the Liddell site," she said.
SunDrive's backers, including Atlassian's Mike Cannon-Brookes, Canva co-founder Cameron Adams, Malcolm Turnbull and Tesla chair Robyn Denholm.
Its board includes "Sun King" Zhengrong Shi, founder of Suntech, once the world's largest manufacturer of solar panels.
Speaking in March, Mr Allen said his company's aim was to build the world's best solar panels in the Hunter.
"Our plan is to produce in our first phase, hundreds of thousands of panels on this site, with the eventual goal of scaling that to millions of panels per year," he said.
The feasibility study will examine key infrastructure and engineering requirements and identify the regulatory approvals and licences necessary for the development, construction, and operation of a solar PV manufacturing facility located in the Hunter Energy Hub Advanced Manufacturing Precinct.
In addition to manufacturing, SunDrive is also in negotiations with AGL, one of the country's largest solar retailers, to enter into an offtake agreement.
"For us at SunDrive, we see that the Hunter has the talent and the skills needed to drive the energy transition and obviously solar is going to be a very core component of that," Mr Allen said.
One in three Australian households presently have solar panels - the highest uptake in the world - but only 1 per cent are made in Australia.
Mr Albanese said the government was determined not miss emerging domestic manufacturing opportunities for solar panels.
"Today we have about 90 per cent of the world's solar panels produced in just one country (China) and then exported to around the world," he said.
AGL is the leading deployer of solar PV to commercial and industrial users in Australia and has approximately 600,000 residential and business customers with solar deployed.
AGL managing director and CEO, Damien Nicks, said the partnership had the potential to help create a new solar manufacturing industry in Australia.
"Our vision for the Hunter Energy Hub is to create a low carbon integrated energy hub - designed with circular economy principles - that brings together industries that can make a positive contribution to the energy transition, including renewable energy generation, grid-scale batteries, green advanced manufacturing, and associated industries." he said.
