Representatives from ARENA (Australian Renewable Energy Agency) delivered a presentation and Q&A to select ARA Committee and Working Group members this week. ARENA’s mission is global emissions reduction through technology and innovation for the benefit of Australia.
They have narrowed their focus to five strategic priorities related to renewable electricity and low emissions, with two primary funding streams of relevance to the rail industry:
- the Industrial Transformation Stream, which targets scope 1 and scope 2 emissions reduction in regional Australia, and
- the Future Made in Australia Innovation Fund, which includes a focus area for low carbon liquid fuels (LCLFs)
A key role for ARENA is in the removal or alleviation of “first mover” risks, by subsidising project costs for innovations and new technology being trialled for the first time. The key benefit to industry from these trials is in the sharing of knowledge and lessons learned from the implementation, which can assist others to follow suit with the same technology with less risk. In addition to helping fund trials of new innovations, ARENA is also interested to hear proposals looking to demonstrate alternative use cases for existing innovations, to grow market confidence in decarbonisation solutions in Australia.
The ARA can assist members seeking ARENA funding by facilitating information sharing and knowledge dissemination from projects and trials. “Knowledge sharing” is one of the five assessment criteria ARENA use to judge the merit of project proposals. The ARA would like to support our members in this space. For more information, please contact ARA Policy Manager Lauren Ascah.