ARENA awards $21.8 million to three WA EV projects

The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) has announced just over $21.8 million to three projects in Western Australia, which it says will accelerate the shift to electric vehicles in the state.

The funding awarded was:

• $15.8 million to industrial freight provider Centurion to roll out 30 battery electric trucks and 15 dual port chargers at its depot in Hazelmere;
• $2.5 million to Patrick Terminals to deploy nine battery electric terminal trucks and related fast chargers at the Port of Fremantle; and
• $3.5 million to help the Western Australian Local Government Association (WALGA) will coordinate delivery of 129 light battery electric vehicles and required charging infrastructure across the fleets of 22 local governments.

The grants will assist in “unlocking an investment of $48.4 million” across the three projects and “demonstrate the breadth of ARENA’s commitment to decarbonising transport”, according to a statement from the agency on Thursday.

“These three projects demonstrate a variety of vehicles and use cases for EVs including industries that have previously proved challenging to reduce vehicle emissions,” said CEO Darren Miller.

“This is exactly what ARENA’s Driving the Nation program is for; testing and demonstrating new use cases for electrical vehicles to prove the business case for low emissions transport.”

The federal Driving the Nation Fund includes $500 million in support for “cheaper and cleaner transport.”

Picture: EVs at Patrick’s Fremantle site