Reports of its death, to borrow an expression, are premature. That is the message of Greg Bourne, the chairman of the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, who says it will continue to spend its $2.5 billion of funds out to 2022, despite efforts by the Coalition government to rein it in.
Bourne said ARENA has a legislated obligation to continue operations out to 2022, and fully intended to do so. Currently, it has 116 project proposals representing projects worth more than $4.5 billion.
“I could talk about the machinations underpinning all of this (efforts to close ARENA) but I think my time is better spent making the point that ARENA is open for business,” Bourne said in a speech to the Australian Energy Storage conference in Sydney on Wednesday.
“A number of projects we have funded have led to exciting technological breakthroughs and delivered both Australian and world firsts.
“We are currently assessing 116 applications seeking $1.4 billion ARENA funding for projects worth $4.5 billion. We are also in the process of refreshing our general funding strategy, which explains the architecture and principals underpinning ARENA’s funding decisions.”
Bourne said that, to date, $1.09 billion had been invested in 230 projects, and each dollar invested had yielded a further $2 of funding from other sources.
“ARENA invests in game-changing research and high-quality projects to advance affordable renewable energy technologies and solutions,” Bourne said.
“Our role is unique in that our support extends from early research to large-scale projects on the brink of commercial viability.
“No other agency supports projects along the innovation chain to the point of commercialisation. No other agency generates both the technology push and market pull that will ultimately deliver the most prospective renewable energy technologies to market.”
ARENA on Tuesday also announced a $1.4 million battery storage research project with the University of Adelaide.
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