Commonwealth tips an extra $2 billion into Clean Energy Finance Corporation

The federal government has announced an extra $2 billion to the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC), spruiking the potential to attract triple that amount in private investment and assist households and small businesses with energy savings. 

The CEFC said the additional $2 billion – provisioned for in the government’s mid-year economic and fiscal outlook – took its total investment capacity to $32.5 billion.

“This boost to the Clean Energy Finance Corporation is expected to unlock around $6 billion worth of private sector investment, supporting local good well-paid jobs, energy security and economic growth,” said prime minister Anthony Albanese in a statement on Thursday.

According to the CEFC it has invested over $4 billion in local projects, helping draw in around $12 billion in private investment, which has supported over 4,000 jobs through its flow-on impact.  

“CEFC investment commitments through the General Portfolio include renewable energy generation and storage, property, electric vehicles, infrastructure and natural capital,” ,” said CEFC CEO Ian Learmonth (pictured.) 

“They also include capital for our asset finance programs, which have already provided discounted finance to households, business and farmers across close to 80,000 smaller-scale clean energy investments.

“In the six months to December 2024, the CEFC made investments commitments of $1.1 billion through the General Portfolio, with a total transaction value of $6.3 billion…”

The CEFC was established by the former Labor-led federal government in 2012 with $10 billion in funding and is now the world’s largest dedicated green bank. The current government’s National Reconstruction Fund, which began investing in manufacturing businesses last year, is modelled on the CEFC’s approach to de-risking private investments.

The announcement follows production credits, announced by the government earlier this week and budgeted at $2 billion, to encourage manufacture of lower-carbon aluminium.

Picture: credit CEFC

Further reading

ARENA, CEFC, NRF should fund net zero R&D – report

CEFC ‘crowds in’ investment in clean energy – Ian Learmonth

CEFC gets $20.5 billion in new capital from federal government