Battery projects to gain funds from Angus Taylor’s failed gas support scheme

Big battery projects in Australia are to get a funding boost, partly from monies diverted from one of the most conspicuous failures of Angus Taylor’s energy policies – the Underwriting New Generation Investment program (UNGI) that failed to build a single megawatt of capacity.

Labor’s climate and energy minister Chris Bowen says the budget papers released on Tuesday night include an extra $63.9 million for large-scale battery projects.

“This is a redirection from the Underwriting New Generation Investment program,” Bowen said in a statement. “This investment in dispatchable storage and accelerating grid firming will help deliver cleaner, cheaper and more secure energy to Australian households and businesses.”

The budget papers also include other well-flagged Labor initiatives, including $225 million over four years from 2022/23 for around 400 community batteries, which will allow households to share rooftop solar output and boost local network security.

Another $102 million has been earmarked for the previously announced Solar Banks, providing access to rooftop solar to low income households, tenants, and residents of apartment blocks.

Rewiring the budget

The big ticket item, of course, is the $20 billion committed to the Rewiring the Nation program, the first tranche of which was rolled out last week ahead of the Victoria government’s caretaker period to commit to a series of transmission links to Tasmania, NSW and to offshore wind projects.

“This is the medium-to-long-term federal government expenditure that our industry has long called for,” said Clean Energy Council CEO Kane Thornton.

“Tonight’s announcements reveal a breadth and depth of commitment not seen before when it comes to successfully managing a fast and fair transition to renewable energy.”

Funding for another of the Coalition’s pet technologies, carbon capture and storage, was also redefined – moving the technology away from the pretense it could offer credible abatement for fossil fuel generation towards hard to abate sectors such as cement.

Good riddance to bad gas projects

Some $141 million will be redirected from burying gas and allocated to the Carbon Capture Technologies Program, which will advance emerging technologies for carbon dioxide removal and use.

Climate activist group 350.org noted that a numerous of gas programs introduced by the Morrison government had been slashed, including:

– $325.9 million from energy and emissions reductions programs including gas and carbon capture and storage;

– $89.9 million cut from the “New Investments under the Technology Investment Roadmap;”

– $7 million cut from “uncommitted funding for gas infrastructure;”

– $10.7 million redirected from the Strategic Gas Basin Plans.

“It’s good riddance to some of these garbage gas handouts from Morrison’s bin fire of a legacy of public funds for the gas industry,” said senior campaigner Shani Tager.

“These are big cuts to gas subsidies but there’s still a mega-gas handout left from Morrison’s gas cash splash. Communities across Australia will continue to fight against the gas-fired toxic industry plans for Darwin which received $1.5 billion in tonight’s Federal budget.

“Gas companies are making windfall profits, they don’t need a dollar of public money to fuel their damaging projects.”