Energy Technology Innovation Strategy (ETIS)

Victoria is facing significant environmental challenges to the economic advantages it derives from utilisation of its very low-cost brown coal resources.  The State accounts for 22 percent of Australia's greenhouse gas emissions, and approximately 52 percent of these arise from the use of brown coal for electricity generation in the State.

The Victorian Government has committed to a 20 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, compared to 2000 levels, by 2020, and up to 25% of its electricity from renewable sources also by 2020. The proportion of energy supplied by renewable energy sources in the stationary energy sector needs to increase over time to meet the State’s emission reduction and electricity generation targets.
As the key stakeholder for the Victorian community, the Government is seeking to deliver two key policy objectives:

• To reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the supply and use of energy in order to develop over time a sustainable energy sector; and
• To drive improvements in energy efficiency and facilitate investment in sustainable energy supply sources to support the continuing competitiveness of Victoria's industrial base.

Delivering these objectives requires leadership and a well-coordinated and well-funded approach by the Government, working with researchers and industry, to ensure successful progression of new, low-emission energy technologies through their innovation processes.

The single objective of ETIS is to drive prospective sustainable energy technologies down their respective cost curves and, in so doing, ensure that a portfolio of low cost, low emissions technologies are available for commercial deployment to minimise the economic impact of a cost on carbon.

A key feature of initiatives under ETIS is that Victoria’s investments support those technologies that industry would choose as the most practical, commercial, cost effective and attractive to Australian Government and private investment.

New Funding Announcements

The Victorian Government boosted ETIS funding by $41 million in the 2011-12 Victorian State Budget, bringing total funding  to $82 million.

The Low Emission Energy Technology Program will provide funding for renewable energy plants and low emission technology projects.

Further details regarding eligibility for the grant funding will be made available during 2011-12.

In August 2010 the Government allocated $30 million to sustainable energy research and development and pilot demonstration projects.

This $30 million is divided into two separate grant programs (each program with up to a maximum of $5 million per project):

• a $10 million Request For Proposals for the Sustainable Energy Research & Development (SERD2) program; and
• a $20 million Expressions of Interest for the Sustainable Energy Pilot Demonstration (SEPD) program.

The aim of both SERD 2 and SEPD programs is to facilitate the further development of sustainable energy technologies relevant to Victoria, and to allow the State to benefit from existing national and international investment in the most relevant and applicable sustainable energy technologies.

The Request for Proposals for the SERD2 program closed on 30 September 2010, and seven successful applicants are listed below.

The Latrobe Valley Advantage Fund

The $30 million of ETIS funding for the SERD 2 Program and the SEPD Program includes an amount of $5 million specifically for small-scale sustainable energy projects in the Latrobe Valley. ETIS is administering this Latrobe Valley Advantage Fund initiative as part of the Government’s Gippsland Regional Plan.  Support for sustainable energy technologies in this region is also noted in the Latrobe Valley Adjustment Package, the Future Energy Strategy 2010 and the Victorian Climate Change White Paper July 2010. The Latrobe Valley is defined as the municipal districts of Latrobe, Baw Baw and Wellington.

Previous Funding

Since 2001 the Victorian Government has committed around $180 million to such technologies, which have subsequently attracted investment of over $2 billion from private and Australian Government sources.

To achieve these objectives, an Energy Technology Innovation Strategy (ETIS) has been implemented to position Victoria for least-cost solutions for stationary energy supply and use in a carbon-constrained world.

In 2005, the Victorian Government committed over $187 million in funding to a range of low emissions energy technology initiatives, including:

• Funding for two Victorian large scale pre-commercial brown coal demonstration projects:
• • $50 million for a 400MW $750 million power generation plant that will demonstrate a Victorian owned and developed “integrated drying and gasification combined cycle” (IDGCC) technology. The Commonwealth Government has also committed up to $100 million to this project.
  • $30 million for a $369 million coal drying and carbon capture project at Hazelwood Power Station. The Commonwealth Government has also committed up to $50 million to this project.
• Up to $50 million has been committed for a 154MW $420 million solar power electricity generation plant to be built by Silex Systems Generation in North-West Victoria. The Commonwealth Government has also committed up to $79.5 million to this project.
• Around $29 million in Government support has been committed for the Centre for Energy and Greenhouse Technologies (CEGT) to continue their vital work assisting emerging technologies to reach commercialisation.
• A $12 million grants round for high quality brown coal research and development (R&D) proposals that can leverage input from industry and the Commonwealth.
• $10 million to support Sustainable Energy R&D, including renewable energy, energy efficiency and clean distributed generation.
• $4 million has been allocated to a trial of carbon dioxide capture and storage in the Otway Basin.
• $2.2 million has been allocated to support construction of a pre-commercial plant demonstrating coal drying technology known as Mechanical Thermal Expression (MTE).

In April 2008, the Victorian Government announced further ETIS funding:

• $72 million towards large scale sustainable energy demonstration projects that will position Victoria as a world leader in the fight against climate change. The Geelong Geothermal Power project was granted provisional funding of $25 million for Stage 1 and Stage 2.
• $110 million fund to establish new large-scale, pre-commercial Carbon Capture Storage (CCS) demonstration projects, as part of $127.4 million to secure Victoria's low emissions coal future.

The Role of ETIS

ETIS aims to ensure the timely availability of economically and environmentally competitive brown coal power generation, distributed generation, energy efficiency and renewable and enabling technologies to boost industrial and regional economic growth for Victoria by providing a concerted and coordinated public and private sector action.

Objectives

ETIS does not just focus on early stages in the innovation process (i.e. Research and Development), but is a comprehensive approach to progress technologies – in a timely manner – along the research-to-market continuum and, in turn, underpin economic development within the State.
ETIS will:

• Facilitate a coordinated approach to the advancement of low-emissions energy technologies (LETs) to their commercial-ready points.
• Support the progression of low-emissions energy technologies particularly where a market gap has been identified through their innovation processes by:
• • Research & Development: Stimulating development of new low-emissions energy technologies to technical proof-of-concept
  • Demonstration: Enabling the progression of the most promising of these through product proof-of-concept and initial scale-up
  • Enabling demonstration of the most promising of these at pre-commercial scale to prove 'bankability' of the technology (i.e. an acceptably-low technical risk for commercial implementation)
  • Promote leading-edge technology capacity in Victoria to underpin local and export market growth to benefit the economy and the environment.

Contact Us

Energy Technology Innovation Division
Department of Primary Industries
GPO Box 4440
Melbourne VIC 3001
Phone: 61 3 9658 4193
Fax: 61 3 9658 4915
Email: dpi.etis@dpi.vic.gov.au

Related Information

• Energy Technology, Victoria Fact Sheet
  
• Brown Coal Research and Development
• Centre for Energy and Greenhouse Technologies 
• Low Emissions Coal Technologies
• Otways Carbon Dioxide Storage Trials 
• Solar Systems
• Sustainable Energy Research and Development