Australia’s biggest and most successful conglomerate, Wesfarmers, is to receive a $100 million commitment from the Australian government’s Clean Energy Finance Corporation to install rooftop solar, battery storage, and even a smart EV charging pilot at one of its Bunnings hardware stores.
The CEFC’s media people said the money would be mostly channelled to the Bunnings and Officeworks chains, and “go towards things like rooftop solar, battery storage, and EV charging at selected sites, with changes kicking off by the end of 2025.
“It’s a big move to cut emissions, lower energy use and ease pressure on the grid in a sector that uses a lot of power.”
The CEFC boss Ian Learmonth chipped in: “Many Australians would have enjoyed a Bunnings Saturday sausage sizzle or taken the path to Officeworks for those back-to-school necessities. At selected sites they will soon be able to add vehicle charging to their store visits while enjoying solar-powered air conditioning.”
And federal energy minister Chris Bowen said: “This boost in finance by the CEFC will accelerate Wesfarmers’ efforts to reduce its carbon footprint, make the shift to cleaner and cheaper energy and better manage energy use.”
But hang on a second. Something about these plans sounded very familiar. Is this the same Bunnings that announced earlier this year that it had already reached its target of 100 per cent renewables, courtesy of rooftop solar on more than 160 of its stores, and power purchase agreements with big wind and solar farms and hydro generators?
Is this the same Bunnings that also announced in March that it was already rolling out a series of EV charging trials at its stores in multiple states, to tap into the growing uptake of electric vehicles? Is this the same Bunnings that posted revenue of $10.3 billion in the December half alone and earnings of $1.3 billion over those six months?
Why does such a successful and profitable company, that has already claimed to have reached 100 per cent renewables, need more discounted loans to add more solar, batteries and EVs?
We put the question to both the CEFC and Wesfarmers, and asked exactly what would be delivered, in terms of numbers of solar panels, batteries and EV charging stations, for the $100 million. We didn’t get a clear answer.
The CEFC responded, but said any questions about the size and scale of what Wesfarmers invests in for the Bunnings and Officeworks chains were a matter for the company.
But it said its funding was designed to accelerate investment in hard to abate sectors, and appeared to confirm it would not be used to finance investments already made.
“The CEFC finance has been structured to achieve a faster and more extensive roll out of new equipment installations (and) DER assets to support energy demand flexibility across select Wesfarmers’ businesses,” the CEFC said.
And there was a bigger picture: “Solar and battery installations will also support grid networks through load shifting,” the CEFC said.
“The CEFC investment demonstrates to other retailers how the sector can be decarbonised, and encourages others to embark on their own decarbonisation programs for further emissions reduction.
“CEFC finance targets key projects that accelerate decarbonisation across the economy, with a focus on hard to abate sectors. The concessional amount is used to incentivise the bringing forward or expansion of the scope of emissions reduction projects.
- “Working with large groups like Wesfarmers enables direct emissions reduction at scale, with additional wider benefits for the grid and consumers.”
Bunnings, which announced its achievement of reaching 100 per cent renewables in March, said it couldn’t comment and advised us to seek a response from its parent company Wesfarmers. The spokesperson for Wesfarmers did not respond to our questions – sent on Sunday – before publication of this story.
There is no doubt that the CEFC has played a critical role in unlocking finance for the green energy transition, particularly for those big projects that struggled to get money out of bankers and other investors still trying to get their minds and their calculators around the transition to renewables and storage.
In the statement released over the weekend, Wesfarmers said the new funds means it will be able to manage energy consumption across its retail sites and make them more efficient through storage. It said these installed or upgraded facility changes are expected to be in effect by the end of 2025.
“We have long managed our businesses with climate and carbon awareness and we are committed to continuing to take action to reduce our impact on the environment,” Wesfarmers CFO Anthony Gianotti said.
A study to accelerate decarbonisation across stores will also be undertaken under the funding envelope. The company aims to get to net zero for these chains by 2030, and reaching 100 per cent renewables is only part of that equation.
In the case of the CEFC, it will no doubt get its money back and meet its revenue targets. But the handing out of large amounts of money to corporate giants for doing things they are apparently already doing does beg a question:
The efforts by Wesfarmers and Officeworks are admirable, and should be followed by all others. But isn’t there some other part of the economy, or some laggard businesses, that are more needy and need more encouragement?
