Federal Energy Minister, the federal government
Stories naming Chris Bowen. Where several outlets covered the same round, they are bundled under whichever ran the fullest account.
Canberra is putting up to $26 million through ARENA behind Element Zero's Perth pilot testing whether the nation's iron ore can become low-emissions iron via a renewable-powered, molten-salt process.
Weekly roundup: Firmus completes its $2.85b round; Procore acquires DroneDeploy; Atlassian rebounds while Canva cuts guidance; plus fresh raises for Zabidou, BioScout, Vexev, Enrola, Spacetalk and others.
Fourteen projects won grants under the federal government's Grid Enhancing Technologies program, including EV charging firms Jet Charge and Charge Hub Australia, to show how EVs and other tech can ease grid constraints.
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Orica will proceed with its Hunter Valley green hydrogen plant after a final investment decision, the first under Hydrogen Headstart; earlier government grants to it and CIP's Murchison are recalled.
Orica has reached a final investment decision for its Hunter Valley green hydrogen and ammonia project, confirming government grant support, while other planned Australian hydrogen projects advance slowly or have been abandoned.
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Australia's Capacity Investment Scheme storage auction names fifteen grid battery winners; Ampyr takes four projects, with Ascera, Potentia and Equis among the others, and a further tender has opened.
Australia's Capacity Investment Scheme named 15 winning battery storage projects, seven of them in Queensland; Ampyr Energy took the most slots, and a further tender is open for bids until August 2026.
Commentary contends the federal government's near-$53m backing of a Tasmanian cement kiln switch to burning wood waste and tyres is misguided, arguing biomass burning raises emissions, damages forests and wastes public money.
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MCi Carbon has launched a Newcastle facility that converts captured carbon dioxide into sellable building products, beginning with Austrian customer RHI Magnesita.
MCi Carbon has opened a Newcastle demonstration plant that converts industrial CO2 into sellable construction materials, beginning product testing for Austrian customer RHI Magnesita.
Australia names 16 battery storage projects as winners of its largest Capacity Investment Scheme tender, totalling 4.13 GW, with EnergyAustralia, Atmos Renewables, Equis, Akaysha Energy and others among the successful bidders.
Canberra will open a second $150 million Solar Sunshot round for PV component makers, while recapping earlier awards to 5B, Tindo Solar, Stellar PV, Solquartz and Energus.
News roundup: hydrogen storage firm Provaris Energy lines up a $1 million placement, water monitor Eco Detection takes on Daniel Lambert as advisor, plus emissions figures, offshore wind licences and industry research.
Australia's renewable energy agency has awarded Orica hundreds of millions for a Hunter Valley hydrogen and ammonia plant, and is consulting on a further two-billion-dollar round for green hydrogen projects.
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RenewEconomy questions why Wesfarmers, whose Bunnings chain already runs on fully renewable power, is receiving $100 million in concessional government finance for more solar, batteries and EV charging.
NSW has granted grid access in its Central-West Orana renewable energy zone to ten wind, solar and storage projects totalling over 7 GW; winners include Squadron Energy, Tilt Renewables, Acen and Lightsource bp.
Tasmania's Boyer mill, Australia's last newsprint maker, has won a $24m federal commitment to replace coal boilers with electric ones; the piece also recounts the site's ownership history and past government support.
Weekly most-read roundup: a NSW lean-manufacturing program opens, Simcoa wins a $39.8m grant, First Graphene ships additive to the UK, Oceania Glass collapses, and a battery-recycling profile.
The federal government has awarded Simcoa Operations $39.8 million to replace coal with charcoal in silicon production, lowering emissions at its WA plant and strengthening domestic solar manufacturing.
The federal government, via ARENA, has granted Vast Energy $180 million toward its concentrated solar plant at Port Augusta, replacing a smaller 2023 commitment, with construction still dependent on closing the remaining project financing.
Manufacturing roundup: Convergence Medical hires Dr Kevin Plancher after its Series A; Patties buys National Pies; GFG Alliance's unpaid water bills surface; ARENA grants EVX Australia $2.4 million for kerbside chargers.
Vast Renewables has locked in a $30 million first instalment of ARENA grant money for its Port Augusta solar thermal project and Australian manufacturing, with CSIRO flagging a record raise for a solar thermal spin-off.
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Roundup: BrainChip's completed placement plus an LDA Capital stake sale, Arafura's committed raise, a $76m Queensland regional fund, ARENA and ACCC appointments, a Tryp advisory hire, and Steel Cement's licence approval.
Federal grants totalling $91 million go to six industrial decarbonisation projects, including coal mine methane abatement, smelter upgrades and refinery electrification, drawing criticism from the Australian Conservation Foundation over the coal award.
Canberra has allocated $330 million from its Powering the Regions Fund to nine industrial decarbonisation projects, with named grants for Cement Australia, Adbri, Queensland Alumina and the Murrin Murrin nickel-cobalt operation.
Canberra's first critical-industry grants send $135.8m to Bluescope for a Port Kembla furnace refit and $63.2m to Gupta's Liberty Steel for a low-carbon Whyalla furnace.
Weekly roundup covering nine Australian startups' new capital totalling $40.5 million, across solar, quantum computing, marketing tech and crowdfunding, plus a look back at Aconex's $1.6 billion Oracle sale.
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SunDrive secured an A$11 million ARENA grant to take its copper-metallised solar cell manufacturing from prototype to commercial scale in Sydney, with plans targeting up to 5GW of yearly capacity.
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Hepburn Energy, behind Australia's first community-owned wind farm, has won a federal grant of as much as $500,000 toward a battery at its Victorian site, with Yarra Energy Foundation recently funded under the program.
Queensland's CQ-H2 hydrogen hub advances with $117 million in new funding from ARENA, the state government and consortium partners, while Singapore's Keppel joins the consortium to pursue a Gladstone ammonia facility with Incitec Pivot.
GrainCorp received a $2.93 million federal grant through the MERiL program's third round to run large-scale dairy and beef trials of low-emission feed supplements, working with FutureFeed, CSIRO, University of Queensland and Agriculture Victoria Services.
News roundup covering Bega's sale of its Vitasoy stake, a university venture fund's first close, an Australia-Netherlands hydrogen agreement, a research body's budget push, and a new Tasmanian space antenna.
Canberra and Berlin award HyGATE initiative grants to green hydrogen projects led by Edify Energy with Siemens and by ATCO, plus electrolyser developer Hysata, backing early stages of gigawatt-scale Australian plans.
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Eight projects share 28.9 million dollars in Australian government grants under the National Soil Carbon Innovation Challenge, funding cheaper technologies for measuring soil organic carbon, with ministers Bowen and Watt announcing the recipients.
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Vast Solar joins a US-led consortium awarded a US$2.3 million Department of Energy grant to develop concentrated solar thermal storage, while progressing plants in South Australia and Queensland.