$126 million is available for the development of renewable energy and enabling technologies
About
The $126 million Emerging Renewables Program supports the development of renewable energy technologies in Australia across the innovation chain. The Emerging Renewables Program was originally administered by the Department of Resources, Energy and Tourism, on the advice of the Australian Centre for Renewable Energy (ACRE). To provide continuity in support for innovation in the renewable energy sector, ARENA has decided to continue operation of the Program in a revised format that provides for assessment, selection and administration of projects by ARENA and for streamlined assessment of funding applications.
Categories
Under ARENA administration, the Emerging Renewables Program continues to be merit-based and provides grants for emerging renewable energy technologies in two funding categories:
- Projects—grants for the development of renewable energy technologies along the innovation chain.
- Measures—grants for:
- renewable energy industry capacity building activities
- renewable energy industry development activities
- preparatory activities for a Project.
Funding
The Emerging Renewables Program has considerable flexibility about the funding it could provide for a Project or Measure. As such, there is:
- no maximum funding available for a Project or Measure, other than the limit of available Program funds; and
- no specified proportion of matching funding required from the applicant.
Emerging Renewables Program Applicants should note, however:
- Funding for any individual Project is expected to be between $2 million and $30 million.
- Funding for any individual Measure is expected to be up to $3 million.
- Higher funding amounts will be considered on a case by case basis. Applicants will need to present a strong case to justify seeking more funding than the amounts specified above.
- Applicants will need to present a strong case to justify the Program providing the majority of the funding for a Project or Measure.
- The Emerging Renewables Program will not normally fund the majority of the cost of a Project or Measure.
- Proposals seeking 100% of the funding required for a Project or Measure, or nearly 100% of the required funding, are likely to be found to have low merit and not be accepted for funding.
Process
The process of applying for funding through the Emerging Renewables Program for a Project is:
- Phase one—applicants submit an Expression of Interest (EOI).
- Phase two—selected EOI applicants that satisfy the merit criteria to a high standard are invited to submit a Project funding application.
The process of applying for funding for a Measure involves one phase. Applicants submit a Measure application to be considered for funding. There is no EOI phase.
Expert Assistance
Writing a good quality grant application is a critical element in the application process. An application needs to be well thought through, written concisely, have clear objectives and purpose, and show clear links to the objectives of the grant guidelines.
The grant application must answer all questions, provide all required information and respond to the merit criteria. It should also reflect your organisation’s business strategy.
Writing a good application takes time and effort, and requires particular writing skills.
Bulletpoint are expert grant consultants and can assist with all aspects of grant preparation.
Call us on (03) 9005 6789 or email to discuss further
We can assist with demonstrating:
- the main technical outcome to be delivered by the Project, including key milestones and dates;
- the technical feasibility of the Project;
- the innovative aspects of the Project that represent a significant step forward in the development of the renewable energy technology or the application of the renewable energy technology in Australia; and
- where the renewable energy technology stands in relation to other similar technologies internationally in terms of cost and stage of development.
- a clearly defined technical outcomes
- a risk management plan that includes the main technical risks to the Project and how these will be managed.
- an intellectual property plan for the renewable energy technology
Documents
| Document | Other | |
| Emerging Renewables Program—Fact Sheet | [fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][PDF 229KB] | [DOC 163KB] |
| Emerging Renewables Program—Guidance to Applicants on Estimating the Project’s Cost of Electricity | [PDF 57KB] | [DOC 89KB] |
| Emerging Renewables Program—Guidance to Applicants Technology Readiness Levels (TRL) | [PDF 42KB] | [DOC 62KB] |
| Emerging Renewables Program—Information Guide | [PDF 549KB] | [DOC 594KB] |
| Emerging Renewables Program—Program Administrative Guidelines | [PDF 344KB] | [DOC 237KB] |
Media Release – Ecoult
Cost-effective battery storage for residential and commercial renewable energy systems is a step closer following an Australian Government investment of $480,000 to test a world-leading battery technology.
The Minister for Resources and Energy, Martin Ferguson AM MP, today announced Project funding for Ecoult, a CSIRO spin-off company, through the Australian Renewable Energy Agency’s (ARENA) Emerging Renewables Program, to optimise CSIRO’s UltraBattery technology.
“In residential areas with a large volume of rooftop solar photovoltaics, or in off grid and remote communities that are trying to displace diesel through renewables, battery technology will be crucial to maximising electricity from renewable energy resources,” Minister Ferguson said.
“One of the benefits of the CSIRO’s UltraBattery technology is its suitability for managing energy intermittencies, smoothing power from irregular sources and shifting energy availability over time to ensure more regular availability.
“That’s why the Australian Government, through ARENA, will be investing in a 30 month project using the UltraBattery technology to determine whether it can lower operating and storage costs, by conducting testing on a storage pilot at CSIRO’s Newcastle facilities.
“Testing the UltraBattery technology for both off grid and distributed technology environments will allow us to learn how we can reduce power fluctuations, which can otherwise act as a barrier to connecting additional solar installations to the electricity grid.”
The $1.16 million project aims to optimise the UltraBattery technology for use in a range of settings, including residential locations with a high number of household solar installations; in remote areas not connected to the national electricity grid; and in hybrid diesel systems.
Applying the technology to hybrid diesel systems will help to improve fuel efficiencies, while in remote areas it will help provide electricity to communities when renewable energy sources are not available.
Successful applicants
Bioenergy
| Project | Description | Grant |
| Curtin University of Technology | Sustainable production of transport fuels from mallee bio-mass by pyrolysis and bio-refinery. | $2,500,000 |
| Microbiogen | Converting sugar cane bagasse into fuel and feed using yeast strains. | $2,539,180 |
| Licella | Commercial demonstration of lignocellulosics to (unique) stable bio-crude oil. | $2,288,000 |
| Bureau of Sugar Experiment Stations | Develop an optimised and sustainable sugarcane biomass input system for production of Gen2 biofuel. | $1,326,000 |
| Algal Fuels Consortium | Selection of microalgae to produce biodiesel and value end products and to develop innovative bio-refinery processes. | $2,724,000 |
| University of Melbourne | Efficient separation, processing and utilisation of algal biomass for the production of biofuels. | $1,240,000 |
| Qantas | The feasibility study will look at the conditions under which the sustainable manufacture of alternative aviation fuel can be achieved in Australia. | $500,000 |
| James Cook University | High Energy Algal Fuels Project, investigating the research, development and demonstration of biofuels from macroalgal feedstock. | $5,000,000 |
| Almond Board of Australia | The study will assess the technical and economic feasibility for bioenergy generation from almond waste. | $32,100 |
Geothermal
| Project name | Description | Grant |
| MNGI | An engineered geothermal system (EGS) project which aims to demonstrate a successful, robust and innovative geothermal heat exchanger. | $7,000,000 |
| Geodynamics Limited | The Hunter Valley project aims to drill two 4,500m holes followed by stimulation and flow testing in granite underlying coal reserves. | $7,000,000 |
| National ICT Australia Ltd | The project is to develop software to improve the process of exploration, discovery and characterisation of geothermal targets. | $1,901,980 |
| MNGI (Petratherm) | MNGI will build a 30 megawatt Enhanced Geothermal System (EGS) demonstration power station at Paralana in SA. | $62,762,000 |
| Geodynamics Limited | Geodynamics will build a 25 megawatt Engineered Geothermal System demonstration power station in the Cooper Basin in SA. | $90,000,000 |
Hybrid/Enabling
| Project name | Description | Grant |
| The Hydro Electric Corporation Limited, | The King Island Renewable Energy Integration Project will integrate wind and solar energy and energy storage with a biodiesel generator to provide both base load and peak power to the King Island mini grid. | $15,280,000 |
Hydropower
| Project name | Description | Grant |
| Waratah Power | The Waratah Power study aims to provide Australian developers of small-scale hydropower technologies and projects with a more detailed understanding of the impacts from turbines on Australian native fish species. | $613,377 |
Ocean
| Project name | Description | Grant |
| Carnegie Wave Energy Ltd | The Perth Wave Energy Project will provide the demonstration and verification of a pilot scale grid connected CETO wave energy facility with initial power supplied to the grid in 2013. | $9,938,818 |
| Victorian Wave Partners (VWP) | VWP will build a 19 megawatt ocean energy demonstration power station using Ocean Power Technologies Inc PowerBuoy technology. | $66,465,000 |
| Oceanlinx Limited | Oceanlinx’s 1 megawatt Commercial Wave Energy Demonstrator Project aims to demonstrate Oceanlinx’s shallow water technology—greenWAVE. | $3,970,450 |
| BioPower Systems | The bioWAVE Ocean Pilot at Port Fairy project aims to demonstrate BioPower’s 250 kilowatt bioWAVE unit. The project will run out to 2015, which includes a two year operational testing period. | $5,600,000 |
Solar
| Project name | Description | Grant |
| CS Energy | The CS Energy Kogan Creek Solar Boost project will demonstrate the use of solar thermal energy to provide a 44 megawatt boost to the Kogan Creek A coal-fired power station in Chinchilla, Qld. | $34,900,000 |
| SolarOasis | SolarOasis will build a 40 megawatt demonstration solar thermal power station at Whyalla, SA using Wizard Power’s ‘Big Dish’ solar thermal technology, developed in Australia at ANU. | $60,000,000 |
| AGL | AGL together with First Solar (Australia) proposes to construct a 159 megawatt photovoltaic power plant across two sites near Broken Hill and Nyngan in NSW. | $170, 400,000 |
| Solar Dawn | Solar Dawn proposes to construct a 250 megawatt solar thermal power plant near Chinchilla in Queensland. | $464,000,000 |
| Solar Systems | Funding is available for a 100 megawatt large-scale solar concentrator power project at Mildura to be delivered by Solar Systems . Funding is conditional on the successful completion of a 2 MW pre-production prototype plant, also located in Mildura. | $75,000,000 |
| BlueScope Steel | BlueScope Steel will develop low cost building integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) and BIPV-thermal systems for mass deployment on Australian residential and commercial/industrial rooftops. | $2,284,800 |
| Geoscience Australia | Provision of Spatial Information for Solar Resource Mapping Relating to High Solar Prospectivity Regions and Expansion of the Solar Observation Network | $5,000,000 |
| Australian Solar Thermal Energy Association | AUSTELA will lead a collaborative research activity to quantify economic benefits from concentrating solar thermal electricity generation in the National Electricity Market. | $85,215 |
Renewable Energy Industry Capacity Building
| Project name | Description | Grant |
| University of Melbourne (UoM) | UoM will conduct a study into achieving cost efficient abatement from Australian electricity generation, which includes the development of software for modelling the operation and performance of the National Electricity Market under different renewable energy penetrations. | $900,000 |
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