Labor tips another $500m into CEFC to help bridge clean energy’s “valley of death”

The Albanese government has tipped another $500 million into the Clean Energy Finance Corporation to establish a new sub-fund to commercialise and scale up technologies designed to cut emissions.

Federal energy minister Chris Bowen says the Powering Australia Technology Fund will be be added to the CEFC Special Account and included in the CEFC’s investment mandate.

Bowen says the new investment will be used to drive commercialisation of a range of innovations around energy efficiency and smart solar and battery technologies – helping to bridge the so-called ‘valley of death’ between R&D and development.

“While we excel in research, Australia has been losing out for too long when it comes to commercialisation,” Bowen said on Wednesday.

“We need to continue developing innovative technologies that will help power Australia, and realising more of their economic benefits here.”

Bowen says the new fund aims to leverage off another $500 million from the private sector and include a “growth capital” offering for clean energy technology businesses looking to expand – similar to the CEFC’s Clean Energy Innovation Fund.

Getting ideas over the line

The $1 billion CEIF was announced in a blaze of publicity by former PM Malcom Turnbull in 2016, albeit at the same time as effectively defunding ARENA. It was then stripped of $800 million less than six months later, leaving it with just $200 million to allocate for early-stage higher risk investments.

Over its nearly 10 years in government, the Coalition made a sport out of issuing funding cuts to clean energy programs and bodies, which it tried to pass off variously as “savings,” “transfers,” or “re-badgings.”

In a statement on Wednesday, Bowen said the new funds for the CEFC would build on the green bank’s role as a specialist investor in Australia’s renewable and clean energy future.

“To capitalise on the opportunities of the global energy transformation and ensure Australia becomes a renewable energy superpower, Australia must invest in the commercialisation of new clean energy technologies, this fund does just that,” the statement says.