The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) has announced the opening of the second round of its Powering the Regions Fund: Industrial Transformation Stream (ITS) program, offering $70 million in funding to accelerate industrial decarbonisation efforts.
This follows the success of the first round, which allocated $150 million and received significant interest from industry stakeholders.
The second round, open until 15 July 2025, expands its focus to include both innovative early-stage technologies and solutions ready for commercial deployment.
The program aims to drive advancements in reducing emissions across heavy industries, which account for 44 per cent of Australia’s total emissions and 45 per cent of its energy use.
ARENA has outlined two key focus areas for this round:
- Focus Area 1: Supporting highly innovative, first-of-a-kind technologies that can significantly reduce emissions. This includes funding for early-stage investments, operational trials in unproven use cases, and projects that demonstrate technical viability to unlock further funding and accelerate deployment timelines.
- Focus Area 2: Accelerating commercial deployment of technologies that have been technically demonstrated but are not yet commercially viable or widely adopted.
ARENA CEO Darren Miller pointed out the importance of industrial decarbonisation in achieving Australia’s climate goals.
“Decarbonising industry is critical in meeting Australia’s short and long-term emissions reduction targets and reducing industrial environmental impact,” said Miller.
“The widened scope of round two highlights the need for innovation, impact, and momentum in the industrial transformation space.”
The ITS program is part of ARENA’s broader $400 million Industrial Transformation Stream, a key component of the $1.9 billion Powering the Regions Fund (PRF).
Established as part of the federal government’s Powering Australia initiative, the PRF supports Australia’s transition to becoming a renewable energy superpower and achieving emissions reduction targets of 43 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030 and net zero by 2050.
In addition to ITS, ARENA is administering the $40 million National Industrial Transformation (NIT) program, which focuses on reducing scope 1 and scope 2 emissions at industrial facilities.
With NIT funds nearly exhausted, this program is expected to close by April 2025.
Through initiatives like ITS and NIT, ARENA continues to play a pivotal role in fostering innovation and scaling solutions that will help transform Australia’s industrial sector while contributing to global climate goals.
