ARENA funding
ARENA has approximately $2.5 billion in funding, which is legislated and extends until 2022. ARENA funds activities that are expected to advance renewable energy technologies towards commercial readiness, improve business models or reduce overall industry costs.
Funding areas
ARENA takes a portfolio approach to investments, providing funding grants along the innovation chain from research in the laboratory to large-scale pre-commercial deployment activities.
For a snapshot of our investments and project pipeline, see the ARENA investment profile fact sheet (PDF 192KB)
Infographic: Our role in accelerating renewable energy technology innovation
More about our funding profile
Funding priorities
ARENA contributes funding for renewable energy activities in accordance with the General Funding Strategy and Investment Plan.
We use the principles in the General Funding Strategy to identify investment focus areas, which are provided in the Investment Plan. All funding proposals are assessed for best fit with the investment focus areas.
Within ARENA’s investment focus areas, our priorities for new investment are:
Large-scale solar photovoltaics |
Integrating renewables and grids |
Renewables for industrial processes |
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Through the large-scale solar PV competitive round, pre-commercial deployment activities that show a clear path to commercial competitiveness for large-scale solar PV. |
Activities that increase the penetration and use of renewable energy generation and distributed energy such as providing customer-focused solutions, facilitating greater renewables uptake in low-voltage networks, or addressing knowledge gaps for integrating renewables and grids. |
Activities that demonstrate the application and economic benefits of using renewable energy within industrial processes, such as displacing fossil fuels, or that reduce the technical and commercial risks associated with the industrial use of renewable energy. |
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Activities that demonstrate how distributed renewable energy systems can alleviate the need for network augmentation or provide other benefits, particularly at the fringes of grids or where there are network constraints. |
Activities that integrate renewable energy with existing electricity supply to power industrial processes and communities in remote off-grid areas. |
Other investment focus areas
ARENA also retains a strong interest across the broader suite of investment focus areas relating to the various markets for renewables and renewable energy technologies. See all investment focus areas.