Turnbull government announces new directors to ARENA board

The Turnbull government has appointed six of Australia’s most prominent clean energy and climate professionals to the board of the the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, although their role is unclear given the changes to the agency announced last month.

ARENA will lose $1.3 billion in unallocated funds under the proposals announced last month, although this is yet to pass through parliament.

Instead, the Turnbull government wants ARENA to work with the Clean Energy Finance as co-manager of a new Clean Energy Innovation Fund, using $1 billion of CEFC money to make equity and finance investments, rather than the grants deployed by ARENA.

However, while ARENA will work on the innovation fund program, helping identify projects, the final decision on investment will be made by the CEFC board, under the proposals made by environment minister Greg Hunt and Malcolm Turnbull.

In the interim though, the board will likely rule on key funding allocations, such as the $100 million to be made available in grants to up to 10 large scale solar projects. They could be the last significant ARENA funding allocations in its current structure, depending on the passage of legislation.

The new ARENA board, appointed two months after the terms of the previous directors expired, was only confirmed this week after being approved by Cabinet on Tuesday.

The board will be headed by Baker & McKenzie lawyer and head of its climate change practice Martijn Wilder, who is also a director of the CEFC, chair of the NSW Climate Change Council, a director and governor of WWF Australia, a member of the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists, and a director of the Climate Council.

Other members include:

Sustainability expert Maria Atkinson, the head of Maria Atkinson Consultancy and a former head of sustainability at Lend Lease.

Susan Jeanes , the former head of the geothermal industry group in Australia and principal at Jeanes Holland and Associates.

Energy efficiency expert  Jonathan Jutsen, the co-founder of Energetics and chair of the Australian Alliance to Save Energy.

Former CEFC deputy chief operating officer Meg McDonald, who is now a director of National Corporate Analysis, and is also a former negotiator in international climate change talks.

Private equity specialist Katherine Woodthorpe, a former  CEO of the Australian Private Equity and Venture Capital Association Ltd between 2006 and 2013.

They will join the current sole director, Gordon de Brouwer, the secretary of the department of the environment.

See: Solar thermal, energy storage, biofuels, wave energy head $17m ARENA R&D funding.