The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) is flush with $43 million of funds to hand out to industry participants that find ways to reduce emissions
This could be the quickest way ever for someone to earn $100,000 to $500,000 for a feasibility study into how tractors sold into our local market should be equipped with emission reduction engines, instead of the soot and deadly particle producing engines in models currently sold here.
Get your pen and paper out and put a submission into ARENA and explain how emission reducing engines for tractors and other farm machines were introduced since 1994 in the northern hemisphere.
At the time it was estimated by scientists, agricultural activity is responsible for almost a quarter of all greenhouse gas pollution in the world. A large part of the emissions is due to the use of fossil fuels in agricultural machinery.
But now tractors sold into that market are now at very clean and far less threatening to operators at Euro 6 levels in Europe and at Tier 4 levels in the US where emissions of PM and NOx were further reduced by about 90%.
These emission reductions have been achieved through the use of controlled technologies—including advanced exhaust gas aftertreatment and are ready to be imported into Australia now.
Explain to ARENA how many engines currently sold in models here are already banned in all first-world countries, except for Australia.
Give ARENA an insight into the facts, harmful emissions are developed from the engines currently allowed here, including Hydrocarbons, Oxides of Nitrogen, and Carbon Monoxide. All of these have serious health implications and are breathed in daily by local operators.
Australia is twenty-one years behind the USA in implementing emission standards for non-road engines. We also lag Canada, Europe, and Japan and are about nine years behind China for some non-road engines.
And add to your feasibility study to ARENA how we could have prevented many health issues for our operators working here for the past 21 years without the same level of emissions protection.
ARENA is working on behalf of the Australian Government and will decide where the $43 million set aside for the Industrial Energy Transformation Studies Program will be spent.
This program was previously announced as part of the 2020-21 Federal Budget, aimed at identifying opportunities to reduce energy costs and emissions in the industrial sector.
Grant funding will be provided in two streams to support feasibility studies and engineering studies to establish the business case for replicable projects that demonstrate energy efficiency and renewable energy technology solutions for industry.
Applicants can seek $100,000 to $500,000 for feasibility studies or $250,000 to $5 million for engineering studies.
Funding will be made available to companies and organisations in the agriculture, mining, manufacturing, gas supply, water supply, waste services and data centre sectors.
These sectors are the largest users of energy in Australia, with around half of industrial energy used to produce process heat for industrial and other processes.
Renewable energy adoption by industry can also be supported with energy storage including batteries, thermal and material storage and technologies that enable greater flexibility and responsiveness of energy demand, such as digitalisation and enhanced controls.
ARENA has previously funded a number of projects aiming to reduce emissions in the industrial sector, including A2EP’s Renewable Energy for Process Heat Opportunity study, Shell Energy’s Advancing Renewables in the Manufacturing Sector studies program
And was part of the ClimateWorks’ Industrial Energy Transition Initiative to accelerate decarbonisation across whole supply chains in sectors where abatement has traditionally faced challenges including steel, aluminium, bauxite and chemicals.
ARENA CEO Darren Miller said the program will create a pathway for emissions abatement among some of Australia’s largest industrial energy consumers.
“Helping large energy users to reduce emissions is essential to decarbonising the economy and helping Australia meet our emissions reduction goals,” Mr Miller said.
“Whether it’s by integrating renewable energy into existing processes or increasing energy efficiency to minimise energy demand and cost, the Industrial Energy Transformation Studies Program will identify credible and innovative solutions to the challenge of reducing emissions in industry.
“As Australian industries look to decarbonise, we must now find smart, replicable solutions to help cut energy costs and reduce emissions in hard to abate sectors. Through this program, ARENA is looking to support solutions that can provide blueprints for business across energy intensive industrial sectors.”
For more information on the Industrial Energy Transformation Studies Program and how to apply, please visit the ARENA funding page.
