NSW offers $275 million for renewable energy manufacturing projects, $100 million for low-carbon products, and $25 million for scalable low-emission technologies, benefiting five Renewable Energy Zones and hydrogen facilities.
More than half of the $275 million on offer ($150 million) is for projects that focus on manufacturing components for renewable energy generation, storage, and transmission. Projects in this category will focus on innovations with a commercial readiness index score of three to six, indicating that they have been lab-tested and are suitable for scaling up.
The government would also provide $100 million to enterprises to manufacture low-carbon products such as biofuels, with all but $5 million going toward construction-ready projects. A further $25 million is available to assist enterprises in making scalable low-emission technologies, such as next-generation batteries, market-ready through research, development, and commercialisation.
The maximum financing available for the Renewable Manufacturing, Low Carbon Product Manufacturing, and Clean Technology Innovation streams is $50 million, $20 million, and $5 million, respectively.
The NSW Decarbonisation Innovation 2023 Study, performed by the Office of the NSW Chief Scientist and Engineer, highlighted the investment areas to complement other investment vehicles such as the federal government’s National Reconstruction Fund.
The funding will also benefit NSW’s five Renewable Energy Zones, which are located in and around Newcastle, Wollongong, Armidale, Dubbo, and Hay, as well as the state’s hydrogen facilities.
Penny Sharpe, NSW Climate Change and Energy Minister, stated that the continuing change of the energy infrastructure was a “incredible opportunity for small, medium, and large businesses”.
“These grants are all about ensuring NSW manufacturing is part of this revolution,” she said alongside Premier Minns on Monday.
“They will lead to new secure, long-term jobs that are good for the planet but also build wealth in local communicates and give NSW security and sovereignty of the renewable energy supply chain.”
The Net Zero Manufacturing Initiative is part of a wider push by the state government to rebuild manufacturing to alleviate supply chain constraints and create local jobs.
Last week, Domestic Manufacturing and Government Procurement Minister Courtney Houssos held talks with ten manufacturers to discuss the challenges and opportunities facing the sector.
Among the topics of conversation was the government using its procurement spend to promote local manufacturing, as it has previously pledged to do through a newly created portfolio.
“For every one job in manufacturing, three-and-a-half other jobs are sustained in the supply chain. We want those secure, well-paid manufacturing jobs to be in NSW,” Ms Houssos said on Monday.
Grants will begin to flow from the Clean Technology Innovation and Low Carbon Product Manufacturing streams in July, with the Renewable Manufacturing stream following in November.
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