Skip to main content

ARENA receives new funding

Published by , Editor
Energy Global,


The Australian Government has announced new long-term funding and an expanded focus for the Australian Renewable Energy Agency that will secure its future beyond 2022.

The Prime Minister and Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction announced a total funding package of AUS$1.62 billion for ARENA including guaranteed baseline funding of AUS$1.43 billion over the next 10 years.

This new funding and expanded focus will allow ARENA to continue its work together with energy industry participants, the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, research institutions and other agencies to support low emission technologies across the innovation chain.

ARENA Chair Justin Punch said that he was pleased that ARENA is seen as a key delivery agent for the Australian Government.

“It is critically important that through agencies like ARENA, we bring to bear the most effective tools and technologies to support the clean energy transition and help Australia reduce its emissions,” Mr Punch said.

ARENA CEO Darren Miller welcomed the new funding and an ongoing role for the agency.

“We are delighted to see ARENA’s important role acknowledged with new funding, and we welcome a new era for ARENA.

“There is still much work to be done but with an experienced team, industry knowledge and strong networks across a range of technologies and sectors, ARENA is well positioned to support Australia’s energy transformation and emissions reduction goals,” Mr Miller said.

Over its lifetime, ARENA has helped to improve the competitiveness of renewable energy technologies such as large scale solar, grid scale batteries, pumped hydro, bioenergy, distributed energy technologies and hydrogen. Since 2012, ARENA has supported 543 projects with AUS$1.58 billion of funding that has leveraged nearly AUS$5 billion in additional private and public sector investment.

As technologies have matured, ARENA’s focus has evolved from supporting pure renewable energy generation technologies to assisting with the integration of these technologies to support the operation of the system with ever increasing shares of variable renewable energy. ARENA’s current investment priorities include a focus on integrating renewables into the grid, accelerating the uptake of hydrogen and supporting industry to reduce emissions.

“Technology and innovation are critical to the energy transition and to Australia’s efforts to reduce emissions and create new economic opportunities,” Mr Miller said.

“ARENA has played a key role in reducing the cost and increasing the supply of renewable energy for the past eight years. We look forward to continuing this important work with the next generation of energy technologies.”

 

 

For more news and technical articles from the global renewable industry read our latest issue of Energy Global magazine.

Energy Global’s Summer 2020 issue

The Summer issue of Energy Global provides in-depth technical articles covering technological advancements and future outlooks in the renewables sector, from companies including Sulzer, Power Ledger, JinkoSolar, Trelleborg Applied Technologies, Clir Renewables, and many more. The issue covers a spectrum of clean energies, from wind to hydrogen to solar to biofuels.

Read the article online at: https://www.energyglobal.com/special-reports/17092020/arena-receives-new-funding/

You might also like

 
 

Embed article link: (copy the HTML code below):