EEC Small Business Grants

What is the EEC Small Business Grants?

The EEC Program – Small Business Grants is a grant opportunity to support small businesses to save energy through:

replace existing equipment with higher efficiency equipment
install or replace a component/s to help an existing system run more efficiently
carry out on-farm energy audits
carry out monitoring of energy usage and emissions

Funding

The Australian Government has announced a total of $40 million over 4 years for the program. For the EEC Small Business Grants, $9.06 million is available over 2 years (2020-21 to 2021-22).

There will be a maximum of three projects funded per electorate.

The grant amount will be up to 100 per cent of eligible project expenditure (grant percentage).

The minimum grant amount is $5,000
The maximum grant amount is $20,000.

Eligible Projects

To be eligible for the EEC Small Business Grants your project must:

be aimed at reducing the energy consumption of your business
have at least $5,000 in eligible expenditure.

Eligible activities include:

replacing existing equipment with higher efficiency equipment
installing or replacing a component to help an existing system run more efficiently (for example installing a variable speed drive on a pump, or installing automatic controls on energy using equipment, or installing a modulating burner on a boiler)
energy audits
investment feasibility studies for energy efficiency upgrades
monitoring of energy consumption and emissions.

In the application form, you will be asked to describe the main focus areas of your project. The focus areas are:

energy audits
investment feasibility studies for energy efficiency upgrades
energy monitoring
lighting
heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC)
commercial refrigeration
compressed air
process heating, cooling and pumping
other equipment
motors (where not covered by another focus area)
business and process automation (where not covered by another focus area).

Some examples of eligible projects in these focus areas are provided in Appendix A of the guidelines.

Eligible Applicants

To be eligible for the EEC Small Business Grants you must:

have an Australian Business Number (ABN)
have an annual turnover of less than $10 million based on Business Activity Statements from the previous 12 months

and be one of the following entities:

a company incorporated in Australia
a co-operative
a partnership
a sole trader.

This grant opportunity can only accept applications:

where you confirm that you are authorised to undertake your project as described (for example, within your leasing arrangements)
where you can demonstrate that you will use appropriately licensed tradespeople to install equipment, where applicable
that include a supplier declaration
that provide the mandatory attachments
where you certify, if you have ceased operating as a result of bushfires or COVID-19, that you intend to resume operating as a business in the future.

Timing

Applications close 26 August 2020.

More Information

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