The Australian government’s Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) is on track to deliver $13.3 billion (USD 8.3 billion) in investment across the renewable energy economy, after closing off $3.5 billion in new commitments in the six months to December 2024.
The commitments saw completion of 28 transactions or approximately one per week, which include the critical transmission development via HumeLink and the New South Wales (NSW) element of the Victoria-NSW Interconnector.
CEFC Chief Executive Officer Ian Learmonth said the scale of CEFC’s most recent investment commitments demonstrate the role it plays in cutting Australia’s emissions.
“As Australia’s ‘green bank’, we see it as particularly important to maximise the impact of our capital. That means attracting significant new investment from other market participants and putting that capital to work on our most pressing emissions challenges,” Learmonth said.
“CEFC capital is working across major sectors of our economy, from renewable energy and transmission to households, from electric vehicles to climate tech and natural capital. Importantly, this activity is Australia-wide, a clear sign the transition to net zero emissions can benefit all Australians.”
CEFC says capital has attracted an additional $3.01 from private sector capital for each dollar it has committed and the co-investment takes the lifetime value of its investment commitments to $71.5 billion.
Mr Learmonth said the CEFC had capitalised on strong market interest to make considerable progress across three specific funds in their first year of operation.
Total commitments for these funds include $2.8 billion for the Rewiring the Nation across five transactions, $345 million to discounted finance programs via the Household Energy Upgrades Fund, which also attracted $285 million from co-financiers, and $176.2 million for 19 climate tech innovators via the Powering Australian Technology Fund.
“A hallmark of the CEFC investment approach remains our efficient use of capital to achieve clean energy outcomes. Since we began investing CEFC has seen $5.4 billion in repayments and returns, providing capital which is available for re-investment,” Learmonth said.
“In the six months to December alone, deployment exceeded $885 million, taking lifetime deployment to $12.2 billion.”
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