Page 2370 - Week 08 - Thursday, 5 August 2021
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Innovative projects that have been completed to date with this funding include Reposit receiving direct grants in round 1 in 2017, which helped them develop their most recent iteration of the Reposit Box. When Reposit started in 2013, they comprised just two staff and have since grown to a team of over 20 staff.
PV Labs received funding through the direct grants rounds 1 and 2. They have pioneered solar panel testing and quality assurance programs in Australia. They now consult for many utility-scale solar farms and are in the process of fitting out a purpose-built testing facility in Mitchell.
Solcast are a renewable energy software company who have been part of Canberra’s Renewables Innovation Hub. They received $287,000 under the round 1 funding, and with this grant funding they are developing a world-leading service for forecasting power output at large solar farms.
ITP Thermal received funding under round 2 to commercialise large-scale storage solutions for hydrogen. They recently established a new company called Ardent Underground and they have raised $1 million in capital to begin a pilot project.
The ANU’s Battery Storage and Grid Integration project is now recognised as a leading source of policy and technical advice on battery integration. This project began with $4 million of ACT government funding but has now grown and it has attracted an additional $7 million through its demonstrated expertise. It comprises over 30 staff and students.
Finally, the Renewable Energy Skills Centre of Excellence was established at CIT in late 2015 to lead the trades training and development of practical technical skills for work-ready graduates across a range of renewable industries across Australia and internationally.
There is a lot to talk about. We have many success stories here in the ACT, where we have used our funding in a targeted way to help leverage these businesses to ensure their growth, to take advantage of the opportunities that the challenge of climate change presents us. As a result these businesses have grown. We have been able to create more jobs, employing more Canberrans.
We are developing a very strong national and international reputation as a renewable energy innovation cluster. We do have world-leading capabilities, as I have demonstrated, in renewable energy asset management; wind and solar resource analysis and forecasting; innovative policy and project design; smart and data-driven energy storage integration; and clean fuels. There is always more work to be done but we come from a very good place.
Debate (on motion by Ms Orr) adjourned to the next sitting.
Sitting suspended from 11.57 am to 2 pm.
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