The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) has opened a second round of its Powering the Regions Fund: Industrial Transformation Stream (ITS) program, with $70 million in funding available to support industry to decarbonise.
Following the well subscribed $150 million first round, the second round is open until 15 July 2025 and is expanding its focus to support innovation and advancement in commercial deployment.
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The expanded focus areas are:
- Focus Area 1—Supporting highly innovative, first of a kind technologies and solutions that have the potential to significantly reduce emissions. Funding will help in derisking early-stage investments in solution development, encourage operational trials in new or unproven use cases, unlock funding and deployment opportunities by evidencing technical viability and accelerate timelines to scale demonstration and deployment, advancing technical readiness.
- Focus Area 2—Accelerating the commercial deployment of technologies and solutions that may be technically demonstrated but are not yet commercially viable or where widespread adoption remains limited.
ARENA CEO Darren Miller said, “Heavy industry accounts for approximately 44% of Australia’s total emissions and 45% of our energy use. Decarbonising industry is critical in meeting Australia’s short and long-term emissions reduction targets and reducing industrial environmental impact.
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“The widened scope of round two highlights the need for innovation, impact and momentum in the industrial transformation space and seeks projects that will drive real, tangible and scalable benefits for industry.”
ARENA is also administering the $40 million National Industrial Transformation (NIT) program that will support the reduction of scope 1 and scope 2 emissions at existing or planned industrial facilities across Australia. With the NIT program funds nearly exhausted, the program is expected to close in April 2025.
