Small and medium businesses across the country will benefit from a new $62 million grants program designed to help them become more energy efficient, ease pressure on their energy bills and reduce emissions.
The federal government published guidelines for the Energy Efficiency Grants for SMEs program with a $16 million investment through Round 1 of the program to support businesses to save on their energy bills. The second round of grants will be delivered next year.
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Grants of between $10,000 and $25,000 will be available to SMEs in all industry sectors to enable them to take energy-saving measures such as installing tools to monitor energy use, upgrading, or replacing existing air conditioners with high efficiency units or gas heating boilers with heat pumps.
Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy Jenny McAllister said the program would help businesses use less energy and improve their competitiveness, while lowering carbon emissions.
“Our government is committed to helping reduce the cost of running a business in Australia through lower energy costs, while taking strong action on climate change,” Assistant Minister McAllister said.
“These grants deliver on our election commitment to support Australian businesses to increase the uptake of energy efficient technologies, which will also help Australia reach net zero emissions by 2050.
“We know that SMEs are under stress, 36% of small businesses report that electricity is one of their biggest overheads, with a further 38% saying they were a substantial cost to the business.
“Improvements in the energy efficiency will ease pressure on energy bills for these SMEs and on the grid, and drive better energy performance across the economy.
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“This funding might help a regional food manufacturer replace a costly gas boiler with an efficient electric heat pump, or help a commercial building change to efficient air conditioners and smarter management.”
The new grants will be allocated to states and territories based on the distributions of small and medium businesses nationally.
Applications for the grants will open on 6 March and close on 19 April 2023.
