ARENA receives $2.25b grant request for community battery projects

The agency received 140 eligible applications for battery deployment.

The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) has obtained more than $2.25b (A$3.5b) worth of requests for battery deployment projects under Round 1 of its Community Batteries Funding Programme.

The programme provides aid for community battery deployment projects, enabling lower energy bills, reducing carbon emissions, and limiting pressure on the electricity grid.

Alongside its response exceeding expectations, ARENA has collected 140 eligible applications from all states and territories. All combined applications totalled $837.3m (A$1.3b), more than 10 times the $77.3m (A$120m) funding in Round 1.

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As a result, the energy agency has shortlisted 31 applications with a total grant request of $148.8m ($231M) and a combined project value of $341.3m (A$530m). A total of 14 applications moved to Stream A and 17 applications under Stream B, covering $60m (A$93m) and $88.9m ($138m), respectively.

“Through these initial projects, we hope to see community batteries enable cheaper, cleaner energy storage to communities and provide valuable knowledge that can be shared across Australia to fast track the implementation of these local batteries,” Darren Miller, CEO of ARENA, stated.

For its 2022-23 Federal Budget, the Australian Government allotted $129.8m (A$200m) for its household solar budget, with the intention to distribute 400 community batteries across Australia. Ever since ARENA has assigned $110.43m of the funding for the delivery of an estimated 342 batteries.

$1 = A$1.55