Deadline: 23-Sep-21
The Victorian Government has launched Energy Innovation Fund to support the commercialisation of innovative, emerging renewable energy technologies in Victoria required to meet the net-zero emissions by 2050 target.
The Victorian Government has launched Energy Innovation Fund to support the commercialisation of innovative, emerging renewable energy technologies in Victoria required to meet the net-zero emissions by 2050 target.
The Fund aims to bring intellectual property, innovation, local economic development and environmental benefits to the State, local businesses and communities. These are achieved through supporting activities that progress innovative projects in their commercialization continuum including feasibility/pre-investment studies, front-end-engineering-design, large scale pilots and demonstrations.
The Fund aims to position Victoria at the forefront of the energy transition, attracting investment and first mover-advantages by:
- Supporting emerging energy technologies to transition from pre-commercial to commercially viable energy options;
- Providing funds to fast track the development and deployment of projects in priority energy subsectors; and
- Targeting sectors that are not commercially competitive today but anticipated to play a critical role in supporting Victoria’s energy transition post-2025.
Objectives
The objectives of the EIF (Fund Objectives):
- Support the achievement of Victoria’s net-zero carbon emission by 2050 target.
- Enable the State to support emerging technology developments that are transformational, high impact, and aligned to Victoria’s New Energy Technologies –Sector Strategy.
- Facilitate the reduction of longterm consumer costs associated with achieving netzero carbon emissions by 2050.
- Promote diversity and resilience in Victoria’s energy sector.
Funding Information
- Funding requests are expected to be in the range of $2 million – 20 million. Any grant funding provided must be the minimum funding required for a project to proceed.
- Total grant funding requests (including all government funding sources) must not exceed 50% of the Project’s Eligible Expenditure.
What projects will the funding support?
- Large-scale energy transformation in Victoria requires a diverse mix of emerging energy technologies, some of which are yet to become commercially viable on their own.
- To support the continued development in this sector, Round 2 is open to any renewable energy technology that satisfies the eligibility criteria.
Eligibility Criteria
Applicant organisations must satisfy the following criteria to be deemed eligible:
- hold an Australian Business Number (ABN);
- be an Australian entity duly incorporated under the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth.) and hold and comply with all necessary authorisations that are material to the conduct of the business of the Applicant; or
- be a Commonwealth entity under section 10 of the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013 (Cth.); or
- be an Australian State or Territory owned body corporate, or a subsidiary of an Australian State or Territory owned body corporate; or
- be an Australian State or Territory local government or council.
In some limited circumstances a legal entity other than those listed above may, at the Department’s discretion, be accepted as an eligible Applicant. Any other entity that wants to apply to the Fund should contact the Department prior to the lodgement of Applications. Foreign organisations who can comply with the Applicant eligibility requirements set out in this document may participate.
- not be subject to any insolvency event including the subject of an order or resolution for winding up or dissolution (other than for the purposes of reconstruction or amalgamation) or the appointment of a receiver, liquidator, administrator or similar;
- be the legal and beneficial owner of, or have all necessary rights to use, any intellectual property necessary to carry out the Project;
- acknowledge that the Applicant will be required to submit a Knowledge Sharing Plan and enter into an agreement with the Department to publicly share knowledge and information about, and resulting from, the Project described in the application (e.g. as part of the Funding Agreement);
- disclose any legal proceedings or investigation including, litigation, arbitration, mediation or conciliation that are taking place, pending or (to the best of the Applicant’s knowledge, after having made proper enquiry) threatened against the Applicant or a related body corporate
- disclose all Australian State, Territory and Commonwealth Government grants applied for in relation to the Project and the history of grant funding (including both successful and unsuccessful applications);
- materially comply with:
- all obligations under employment contracts, industrial agreements and awards;
- all codes of conduct and practice relevant to conditions of service and to the relations between the Applicant and the employees employed by the Applicant; and
- all applicable Workplace Health and Safety legislation.
- hold all insurances required by law;
- not be named on the list of persons and entities on the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade sanctions list;2 and
- not be named as an Applicant that hasn’t complied with the Workplace Gender Equality Act 2012.3
If at the time of the application the Recipient is expected to be a different legal entity to the Applicant, the Applicant must specify that this is the case in its application and provide details of the expected Recipient.
Applicants should note that the funding Recipient (if different to the Applicant) must meet and comply with the eligibility criteria set out above.
The Department will not be obliged to enter into a Funding Agreement with any person other than the proposed Recipient assessed by the Department at the time of application or an entity that is majority owned and controlled by the proposed Recipient assessed by the Department at the time of application.
Applicants must demonstrate that they and the proposal will remain financially viable throughout the life of the Project.
For more information, visit https://www.energy.vic.gov.au/grants/energy-innovation-fund