$180 million third round of Industrial Transformation Stream program opens for regional companies

Applications have opened for the third round of the Australian Renewable Energy Agency’s (ARENA) Industrial Transformation Stream (ITS), with $180 million in grant funding available for emissions reduction projects at regional industrial businesses.

According to a statement from ARENA on Thursday, it is currently seeking businesses with projects aiming to transform operations to support Australia’s net zero goals.

The funding round covers two focus areas: technologies that could deliver impact but haven’t been tried before, as well as technologies that are already proven but not yet widely used due to cost or risk barriers.

“Whether you’re electrifying cold storage at a meat processing facility, implementing thermal energy storage technologies, or recovering biogas from dairy waste—if you are tackling emissions and energy use in an innovative and scalable way, we want to hear from you,” said Darren Miller, CEO of ARENA.

Among conditions are that a business be located in a regional area, use a significant amount of energy and produce Scope 1 or Scope 2 emissions, qualify for reporting under the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting (NGER) Scheme, and have a project that can be scaled or replicated across the industry.

More information about the ITS, which has allocated approximately $220 million in grants so far, is available here.

Picture: Bioenergy project, Southern Meats Facility in Goulburn NSW (credit ARENA)