Following the introduction of the government’s Frontier Area uplift, which some industry spokespeople claim is neither fair nor goes far enough as it assists only the few companies with offshore production and which pay PRRT, in June, Federal Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane officially launched a $100 million fund to support cutting-edge renewable energy technology development.

The Renewable Energy Development Initiative (REDI) will provide Australian businesses, developing renewable energy projects with significant greenhouse gas abatement potential with matching competitive grants worth between $50,000 and $5 million. According to Mr Macfarlane, the initiative, which is administered jointly by the Department of Industry Tourism and Resources and the Department of the Environment and Heritage, delivers on a key commitment set out in the 2004 Energy White Paper.“Renewable energy technology plays an important role in our energy mix and is a key element of Australia’s overall greenhouse response in the energy sector”, he explained. “REDI will support renewable energy projects from early stage R&D right through to commercialisation – helping to develop an internationally competitive renewable energy industry in Australia.”

The definition of renewable energy technologies is ‘direct or enabling technologies developed for the purpose of deriving sustainable energy – either from the sun; wind; geothermal; biomass (not fossil fuels); hydro systems; wave, tidal and ocean energy; or any other renewable energy source approved by the Australian Greenhouse Office’.

Environment Minister Senator Ian Campbell stated that Australia was highly aware of the environmental benefits of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and that industry was responding well to the greenhouse challenge. “The Government’s investment in renewable energy initiatives to date is expected to reduce emissions by around seven million tonnes each year. I’d like to think that in a few years a REDI-funded project will boost that figure even further”, he said.

The closing date for first-round funding applications is Thursday August 25th 2005.