ARENA supports online renewable energy marketplace

The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) will help fund Australia’s first Business Renewables Centre, designed to encourage businesses to invest in renewable energy and reduce high power bills.

ARENA will provide $500,000 and the New South Wales and Victorian Governments will provide $150,000 in funding to the Climate Knowledge Innovation Community Australia (Climate-KIC Australia), the World Wildlife Fund (WWF Australia) and the University of Technology Sydney Institute for Sustainable Futures for the project.

The Business Renewables Centre Australia will be a resource centre and an online marketplace platform. The $1.74 million project aims to make it easier for corporations and councils to purchase or procure renewable energy through corporate power purchase agreements (PPAs), with the goal of 1 GW of installed renewable energy by 2022 and 5 GW by 2030.

It will also help the Labor government achieve its net zero emissions target and renewable energy targets of 25% by 2020 and 40% by 2025. Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change Lily D’Ambrosio said, “We’re pleased to be part of this collaborative project to give businesses the tools and resources they need to make the shift to renewable energy.”

The centre is modelled on the Rocky Mountain Institute’s Business Renewables Centre in the US, which has already helped deliver more than 11 GW of renewable energy deals since 2014. It provides members with information, a network of energy buyers and project developers, inexpensive training and advice on PPA requirements.

“The future for energy is a large number of smaller renewable generating facilities often developed by non-generating entities,” said ARENA CEO Darren Miller. “The Business Renewables Centre will help in that transition in using its vast expertise in running programs, entrepreneurship, innovation, education and other sustainability objectives to make it easier for companies and councils to enter into the renewables market.”

Professor Stuart White, Director of the UTS Institute for Sustainable Futures, said: “There’s a lot of interest in renewable energy PPAs, but they’re new to Australia and the key decision-makers often lack the information they need. We will be applying a model that’s been successful in the US to give companies the tools and resources they need to make the shift to renewable energy.”

According to WWF Australia CEO Dermot O’Gorman, the Business Renewables Centre will also build on the success of WWF’s Renewable Energy Buyers Forum, and the growth in corporate renewable PPAs in the last 12 months.

“The future of renewables in Australia looks positive because it makes sound business sense. Contracting for long-term renewable energy will save customers money and will support growth in renewable energy infrastructure across Australia,” he said.

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