$20 million to help small business and community groups save on energy costs

The Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency, Greg Combet, and the Parliamentary Secretary, Mark Dreyfus, today announced over $20 million in grants to improve energy efficiency at small and medium businesses and community groups. Improving energy efficiency is a central element of the Gillard government’s Clean Energy Future (CEF) package because it can help businesses save money on their operating costs while also lowering Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions.

Combet welcomed the positive response to Round One of the Energy Efficiency Information Grants (EEIG) program when announcing the 28 successful recipients.

“These grants will enable organisations such as Master Grocers Australia to work with small grocery chains and help them assess how they can make smarter energy choices to reduce energy costs,” Combet said.

“Small and medium businesses and community groups are under a lot of time pressure. As a result, they often don’t have the time, resources or information to find out how to save money by improving energy efficiency.”

Dreyfus explained, “These grants will deliver practical information from trusted sources to help small and medium businesses and community groups use energy in the smartest and most efficient way.

“The government funded 28 projects from over 200 applications in the first round and I’m pleased to announce that Round Two will open in October.

“We received a wide range of high-quality proposals - the strong interest in the grants highlights just how eager Australian industry associations and non-profits are to demonstrate exactly how individual sectors can be smarter with their energy use.

“This overwhelming response shows the Australian community understands that we need to be smarter with our energy use as we move towards a clean energy future.

“I encourage applicants who did not receive funding in this first round to review the Round Two guidelines when they are made available and consider applying again,” Combet said.

Applications were assessed by an independent committee on value for money, project effectiveness and delivery, particularly focusing on the strength of relationship between the grant recipient and their network.

The $40 million EEIG program is part of the CEF package. The government is providing additional support for small and medium business under the  package, including an extra $5 million to improve delivery of clean technology advice and other non-grant support programs for Australia’s small and medium businesses.

In addition, the government is also increasing the instant asset write-off for small and medium businesses with turnover of less than $2 million per year to $6500.