Clean Energy Finance Corporation

The Australian government’s green bank has extended its collaboration with the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group, committing up to $200 million as part of a clean energy asset purchasing program to help Australian businesses invest in energy efficient and renewable technologies to cut costs and reduce emissions.

The Australian arm of U.K.-based global fund manager Octopus Group and the Clean Energy Finance Corporation have added another renewable energy project to their joint venture’s portfolio, announcing they will work with the founders of the Blind Creek Solar Farm near Bungendore in regional New South Wales to deliver the 300MW agri-solar and battery project.

The Australian government’s green bank has announced the launch of its first specialist fund manager as it looks to increase the amount of investment capital available for clean energy start-ups that can help achieve net zero emissions.

Federal government plans to expand the mandate of the Clean Energy Finance Corporation so it can invest in carbon capture and storage technology have been criticised as “yet another attempt to prop up Australia’s thermal coal industry, at the expense of renewables”.

The Australian arm of global fund manager Octopus Group has expanded its renewable energy portfolio, teaming with the Clean Energy Finance Corporation to purchase the rights to develop two proposed utility scale solar-storage hybrid power plants in Victoria’s Gippsland region.

South Australian transmission company ElectraNet on Monday announced it will invest $457.4 million to deliver the its section of the Project EnergyConnect, the high-voltage electricity transmission interconnector between South Australia and New South Wales.

A new study commissioned by the Clean Energy Finance Corporation has indicated renewable hydrogen is already approaching cost competitiveness with that produced using fossil fuels but some in the industry have declared the government-owned green bank’s figures are much too conservative.

Former leader of The Nations, Barnaby Joyce, has put forward an amendment to the Coalition’s legislation for the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) which would allow the $10 billion “green bank” to invest in “high intensity, low emissions coal-fired power.”

The Clean Energy Finance Corporation and Aware Super, one of Australia’s largest superannuation funds, have both committed $80 million to Adamantem Capital, a private-equity fund which requires its target companies to meet strict emissions reduction targets. For the CEFC, this is the beginning of decarbonisation in a part of the economy lagging behind, namely, private equity.

The Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) has published its annual report this week, a report glowing with the hue of ‘prudent investment’ according to the CEFC Chair. The report emphasises the prudence and efficacy of the green bank’s mandate despite attempts by the Morrison Government to siphon off funds for fossil-fuel investments.