Parliament moves to expand remit of national renewable energy funding body
ARENA is now able to support a broader range of technologies to advance the priorities of the Government’s Technology Investment Roadmap
Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) will now play a major role in driving investments in the next generation of technologies, including energy efficiency, carbon capture technologies, including CCUS and negative emissions technologies, blue hydrogen (clean hydrogen from gas using CCS), and energy storage technologies to back up renewable energy and soil carbon.
"These reforms are about bringing a portfolio of technologies to commercial parity so we can reduce emissions across every sector of the economy, without destroying jobs or imposing taxes or new costs on households, businesses and industry," said Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction Angus Taylor MP.
To achieve this goal, the Government will invest $20 billion in new energy technologies by 2030, to drive at least $80 billion of total public and private investment over the decade. This investment will support at least 160,000 new jobs.
The regulatory change allow ARENA to implement $192.5 million of programs in the 2020-21 Budget, including:
- $67.9 million to support for heavy vehicle fuel efficiency and industrial energy efficiency
- $71.9 million to support hydrogen and electric vehicle infrastructure as part of the Government’s Future Fuels Fund
- $52.6 million to support microgrids for regional Australia
Expanding ARENA’s remit to unlock the transformative low emissions technologies that businesses need was a recommendation of the King Review.
