The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) has opened a second round of its Powering the Regions Fund: Industrial Transformation Stream (ITS) program, with $70 million (USD 44 million) in funding available to support industry to decarbonise.
The round has two specific focus areas emcompassing first-of-a-kind technologies and solutions with the potential to significantly reduce emissions, and secondly, on commercial deployment acceleration.
Funding will help derisk early-stage investments in solution development, encourage operational trials in new or unproven use cases, unlock funding and deployment opportunities by evidencing technical viability and accelerate timelines to scale demonstration and deployment, advancing technical readiness.
ARENA Chief Executive Officer Darren Miller said the second funding round is a natural progression for ARENA’s ITS and aims to accelerate progress.
“Heavy industry accounts for approximately 44% of Australia’s total emissions and 45% of our energy use. Decarbonising industry is critical in meeting Australia’s short and long-term emissions reduction targets and reducing industrial environmental impact,” said Miller.
“The widened scope of round two highlights the need for innovation, impact and momentum in the industrial transformation space and seeks projects that will drive real, tangible and scalable benefits for industry.”
ARENA was allocated the $400 million ITS as a 2023 budget measure under the $1.9 billion Powering the Regions Fund (PRF), which forms part of Powering Australia, supporting Australia’s ambition to become a renewable energy superpower and meet emission reduction targets of 43% below 2005 levels by 2030, and net zero emissions by 2050.
The ITS second round is open until 15 July 2025.
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