The Australian Renewable Energy Agency has delivered a thinly veiled criticism of the Coalition decision to remove its grant-funding ability, saying it will make it harder to bridge the “valley of death” for new technologies.
The Coalition announced last month that it would scrap the $1.3 billion in legislated but uncommitted funds from ARENA, although it would preserve the agency by giving it a new role “advising” on the new Clean Energy Innovation Fund.
The CEIF, using $1 billion of previously allocated funds from the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, will only invest in equity and finance, so it could retrieve its investment rather than handing them out through grants.
The CEIF was welcomed, but the removal of the grant-based funding was questioned by many, including the former ARENA chairman Greg Bourne, who said that it would remove an important funding mechanism that was critical for early-stage technologies and R&D.
On Thursday, Danny De Schutter, ARENA’s senior strategy consultant, said the changes flagged by the government would represent a “considerable shift” in the agency’s ability to support early stage innovation.
Giles Parkinson is founder and editor of Renew Economy, and is also the founder of One Step Off The Grid and founder/editor of The Driven. Giles has been a journalist for 35 years and is a former business and deputy editor of the Australian Financial Review.
“Labor announced that it would not fight the changes to ARENA, because it received little support from NGOs and renewable energy advocates when it criticised the Coalition changes as a sleight of hand.”
I read that as labor needs their hands held to do the right thing.
Good job.
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