Federal government tips $43m into decarbonising “hard to abate” sectors

The federal government has set aside $43 million to help fund the emissions reduction task of some of Australia’s largest industrial energy consumers in some of its hardest to abate sectors, including producers of steel, aluminium, bauxite and chemicals.

Through the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), $43 million will be made available via two streams of grant funding to support feasibility studies and engineering studies around the integration of renewables and energy efficiency technologies.

The grants program will target the agriculture, mining, manufacturing, gas supply, water supply, waste services and data centre sectors, which are the largest users of energy in Australia, in particular to produce heat for industrial and other processes.

Grants will be available for between $100,000 and $500,000 for feasibility studies or $250,000 and $5 million for engineering studies, ARENA says.

The Agency says undertook informal consultation with a number of industry associations to design the program approach.

“As Australian industries look to decarbonise, we must now find smart, replicable solutions to help cut energy costs and reduce emissions in hard to abate sectors,” said ARENA CEO Darren Miller on Thursday.

“The Industrial Energy Transformation Studies Program will identify credible and innovative solutions to the challenge of reducing emissions in industry,” Miller said.

“Through this program, ARENA is looking to support solutions that can provide blueprints for business across energy intensive industrial sectors.”

Federal energy minister Chris Bowen says the program aims to help identify opportunities to reduce energy costs in industries and cut emissions in line with the Albanese government’s climate targets.

“The ARENA grants will help industrial emitters to find innovative ways to cut their energy demand, adopt renewable energy, save on their energy bills, and help Australia meet its emissions reduction targets,” Bowen said.