The NSW Environmental Trust has given $6.3 million in grants to clean technology research and development initiatives to help reduce emissions in high-emitting or hard-to-abate businesses through 2030 and beyond.
The four initiatives are part of a $40 million R&D program that includes solar-powered e-kerosene manufacture for sustainable aviation fuel and the development of copper-based solar panels to reduce electricity costs.
Minister for Energy Matt Kean said NSW has a long record of creating worldwide clean tech success stories, with UNSW leading the way in solar research and development.
“NSW has a once-in-a-generation opportunity to export the ideas and creations of our best and brightest to the rest of the world. Investing in clean technology not only creates new pathways to reduce emissions across hard-to-abate parts of our own economy, it creates new markets for our researchers and entrepreneurs to develop and grow their businesses,” Minister Kean stated.
The successful applicants are:
- Sundrive Solar got $3 million to advance its solar cell technology, which replaces expensive silver with much cheaper copper.
- Hysata was awarded $1.5 million to help fund the development of a new form of simple, cheap, and highly efficient water electrolyser that promises to generate the world’s lowest cost ‘green’ hydrogen, which is critical to reaching net zero emissions in the global economy.
- Southern Green Gas was awarded a $1 million grant to create a solar-powered e-kerosene manufacturing module for Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) for the hard-to-abate aviation sector.
- Quickstep Technologies was awarded $803,000 to create a carbon fibre filament winder system in NSW for the manufacture of Type IV hydrogen tanks for land transportation and aviation applications.
On Monday, 31 October 2022, Round 2 of the grants will begin, with up to $14 million in financing available. The money will be available for small grants of $400,000 to $3,000,000 each.
