Four of New South Wales’ highest emitting manufacturers have been awarded almost $1 million in grants to accelerate the deployment of GreenTech and other decarbonisation projects.
Chemical manufacturer Orica, cement producer Boral, starch manufacturer Manildra Group and Tomago Aluminium were announced as the funding recipients on Thursday.
Funded through the $305 million Net Zero Industry and Innovation Program (NZIIP), the manufacturers will share in $855,000. This is funding they will be expected to at least match.
Treasurer and Energy minister Matt Kean said that the funding, sourced from NZIIP’s Transformative Industry Projects stream, would help decarbonise the economy and support GreenTech innovation.
The successful companies are still able to apply for further funding through the program.
“We are working with industry to transform NSW into an innovative, thriving low carbon economy. Accelerating the deployment of deep decarbonisation technology will help industry prosper in a net-zero economy and open up new markets for NSW-made products,” Mr Kean said.
“The studies focus on how we can adopt cutting edge clean technology right here in NSW like green hydrogen in cement manufacturing or renewable energy in aluminium smelting.
“These facilities combined emit more than 10 million tonnes of carbon every year, equivalent to the emissions of more than 3.5 million cars. Helping them slash emissions is critical to the success of reaching our targets of 70 per cent emissions reduction by 2035 and net-zero by 2050.”
Mr Kean also noted that these heavy polluters would be obliged to cut emissions by 4.9 per cent annually to 2030 if the federal government’s proposed reforms to the safeguard mechanism are passed.
Funding through NZIIP is set to last until 2030 and is split across two priorities at present. The first $200 million is to “deploy opportunities to reduce industrial emissions”, while the remaining $105 million will “accelerate strategic abatement opportunities”.
The program is a part of the state government’s wider Net Zero Industry and Innovation Investment Plan, which targets an emissions reduction equivalent to taking 10 million cars off the road by 2030, particularly targeting the high emitting mining and manufacturing sectors.
Investment opportunities highlighted in the plan include: low carbon cement, bioplastics, high efficiency electric motors, and deploying electric vehicles at mining operations.
This year $55 million in support for low carbon infrastructure and clean manufacturing precincts will open for applications in 2023.
In the first half of the year, the state government is also expected to announce the successful applicants that will be developing decarbonisation roadmaps for the Hunter and Illawarra regions.
Earlier this week, the state government also opened the latest round of its electric vehicle fleets incentive. Through this round, a total of $15 million is available to help fleet operators purchase electric vehicles and charging equipment.
Do you know more? Contact James Riley via Email.