What is the Carbon Capture Use and Storage Development Fund?
The Carbon Capture Use and Storage Development Fund is a grant opportunity to help businesses with pilot projects or pre-commercial projects aimed at reducing emissions.
Background
The Carbon Capture Use and Storage Development Fund will run over three years from 2020-21 to 2022-23. The program will support carbon capture, use and storage (CCUS) pilot projects or pre-commercial projects aimed at reducing emissions. For this program and unless otherwise specified, CCUS includes carbon capture and storage (CCS) and carbon capture and use (CCU) technologies.
Objectives
The objectives of the Carbon Capture Use and Storage Development Fund are to:
- reduce emissions across energy generation, natural gas or hydrogen production and heavy industries (including manufacturing, chemicals, cement and fertiliser production)
- foster existing, pilot or pre-commercial CCUS facilities that could connect into a regional CCS hub in the future and bring together a network of multiple greenhouse gas emitters enabling reductions in costs and risks for CCUS projects and large-scale abatement
- support the Australian Government’s priority technology stretch goal to compress, transport and store carbon dioxide (CO2) for less than $20 per tonne of CO2
- leverage expertise and viable geological storage resources for CCUS in Australia
- support new opportunities to use carbon dioxide in the development of CO2-derived products and services.
Funding
The Australian Government has announced a total of $50 million over three years for the program. A project may span beyond the end of the grant opportunity but no later than 30 June 2025.
The minimum grant amount is $500,000 and the maximum grant is $25 million.
Eligible Projects
To be eligible for the Carbon Capture Use and Storage Development Fund, your project must:
- be aimed at developing CCUS technology or CCUS deployment involved in energy generation, natural gas production, hydrogen production, or heavy industries (including manufacturing, chemicals, cement and fertiliser production)
- pilot and/or significantly progress CCUS deployment in Australia towards commercial operations
- have at least $500,000 in eligible expenditure.
Eligible activities may include:
- consultation and planning, including community, industry and research engagement
- constructing, installing and commissioning of CCUS equipment and software
- process design and engineering
- monitor the performance of the supply, reliability and quality of CCUS
- knowledge sharing activities including demonstrations and workshops
- transformation of carbon dioxide to create economically viable products, such as fuels, chemicals and building materials.
Eligible Applicants
To be eligible for the Carbon Capture Use and Storage Development Fund, you must have an Australian business number (ABN).
You must also be one of the following entities:
- an entity incorporated in Australia and a trading or financial corporation
- a foreign corporation
- an incorporated trustee on behalf of a trust where the trustee is also a trading, financial or foreign corporation
- an Australian State/Territory Government agency or body
- an authority of the Commonwealth such as the Commonwealth Science and Industrial Research Organisation.
If you’re an entity incorporated in Australia and a trading or financial corporation, your trading or financial activities must either:
- form a sufficiently significant proportion of the corporation’s overall activities as to merit it being described as a trading or financial corporation
- be a substantial and not merely peripheral activity of the corporation.
This grant opportunity can only accept applications:
- where you can provide evidence from your board (or chief executive officer or equivalent if there is no board) that the project is supported, and that you can complete the project and meet the costs of the project not covered by grant funding
- where you can provide evidence of how you will provide your share of project costs such as an accountant declaration that confirms you can fund your share of the project costs, including any ineligible expenditure
- from a Foreign Corporation where you and/or your sub-contractors are not on the Consolidated List.
An accountant declaration template is available to provide evidence of project costs.
If you are ineligible you may be able to submit a joint application. Joint applications are acceptable, provided you have a lead applicant who is the main driver of the project and is eligible to apply.
Timing
Applications close 29 March 2021.
More Information
Media Release
The Federal Government has launched its $50 million Carbon Capture, Use and Storage Development Fund.
Carbon capture and storage technologies are one of five priority areas for investment under the Federal Government’s Technology Investment Roadmap.
Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction, Angus Taylor, said carbon capture technologies would be critical to achieving net zero emissions from power generation, natural gas and hydrogen production as well as process emissions from heavy industries like cement and fertiliser production…
