Lower Carbon Grants Program – Gorgon Fund
Matched grants of A$5 million–A$15 million for Australian incorporated entities developing large projects that reduce emissions in Western Australia.
Denne finansieringsmulighed er i øjeblikket beskrevet på engelsk.
The 2024 round supported large research and innovation projects, including testing, demonstrating and deploying technologies that reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The State contribution was decided case by case, between A$5 million and A$15 million and up to 50% of total project cost. The grant and total project cost in the agreement template exclude Goods and Services Tax (GST). You had to disclose Australian Government and other State Government funding, and total Western Australian Government grants could cover no more than 50% of project costs.
Eligible costs were agreed in the funding agreement. They could include carbon-abatement or carbon-storage equipment, new technology, design and professional services, transport, installation, commissioning, laboratory testing, field sampling, project and grant management, capital investment, and salaries for new jobs specifically created for the project. Expenditure had to follow the project commencement date.
Payment required an executed Financial Assistance Agreement (FAA), satisfaction of its preconditions, achieved milestones and evidence of actual eligible expenditure. The template required evidence that matching funds had been obtained before payment; a shortfall could reduce the grant. Substantial project changes needed prior written State approval, and agreement changes had to be signed by both parties.
Recipients had to report progress, expenditure and completion and cooperate with evaluations. Annual evaluation reports could be required for up to three years after project completion. The template’s special conditions required recipients and their group members to retain agreement records during the agreement and for 24 months from the end of the calendar year in which it was completed or terminated, with applicable tax, import, export and other legal limitation periods also applying; the State could inspect records.
The agreement template required recipients to maintain workers’ compensation insurance as required by law, cover for the full replacement value of grant-funded assets, and public liability and professional indemnity insurance of at least A$10 million per claim each. The insurer had to be approved by the Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority, be an overseas insurer rated at least A− by a recognised financial rating agency, or be established under Commonwealth or State law.
Unused or uncommitted grant funds had to be returned within 20 business days of project completion or the agreement’s conclusion, whichever came first. If the actual cost of the Department-funded part was below the grant, recipients had to repay the difference within 20 business days. Misused funds were repayable, and a default could lead to termination and a demand to repay part or all of the paid grant within 20 business days of notice.
Eligibility
These conditions describe the closed 2024 round.
- At agreement signing, the applicant had to be an Australian entity incorporated under the Corporations Act 2001 or the Corporations (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander) Act 2006, with an existing Australian Business Number (ABN).
- The applicant, or its partner, had to be a legal and solvent entity with at least three financial years of proven trading history. Applicants needed audited financial statements for those years. Management had to be legally able to perform its roles, free of conflicts posing a material risk to those roles, and legally entitled to control the project.
- The project had to take place primarily in Western Australia or have another substantive link to the State. It had to be legal in Western Australia, satisfy applicable approvals, and begin operations within two years of signing the FAA unless otherwise agreed. Separately, the agreement template required the project to start within three months after the Commencement Date recorded in Schedule 2 of the agreement; without prior written State consent, failure to start required repayment of received instalments within 20 business days. The State could extend that three-month period.
- Committed cash from the applicant, partners, private sector or financial institutions had to cover at least 50% of total project cost. Applicants needed management, technical and financial capability and evidence that the project could sustain itself without further State investment.
- Applicants had to demonstrate investment readiness: that the project was prepared to proceed. The guidelines allowed some or all of the following as evidence: a feasible delivery plan and ways to manage risks; capacity to deliver; project and commercial viability; financial modelling or budgeting; finance pathways; governance; senior-management commitment; market demand and advanced customer negotiations; and competitor analysis.
- Projects needed potential emissions substantially below the relevant activity’s current average baseline, outcomes that would not occur without the grant, and wider benefits to Western Australia. Assessment considered emissions reduction, wider adoption, shared knowledge, public benefits, the degree to which innovation went beyond common practice and work required by law, ongoing commitment, delivery capacity, business viability and risk management.
- Partnership applications needed a signed agreement or memorandum of understanding describing commitments and financial contributions. The primary applicant remained responsible for the funding agreement and delivery.
- Applicants could not be owned or controlled by sanctioned countries or persons under the named UN Security Council, Australian, UK, Japanese or US sanctions or trade restrictions, or be debarred, excluded or ineligible for Australian, UK, Japanese or US government contracts.
- The agreement also required declarations covering recipients and group members performing project work against applicable sanctions, restricted-party lists and US government-programme debarment. A newly discovered restricted-party status required prompt notification within 90 days, steps to remove it and suspension of that member’s work meanwhile. Personnel from countries under comprehensive US trade sanctions required prior written State consent; restricted or sanctioned sources of products were prohibited, as was releasing State information to countries subject to applicable economic sanctions or trade restrictions.
- In-kind contributions, related-party payments, pre-commencement costs, work outside Western Australia, early feasibility/business-case/due-diligence costs, and costs of projects already receiving or also due to receive State funding—including Investment Attraction Fund support—were generally ineligible. The same applied to approval fees, ordinary operating costs, unrelated staffing costs, expenditure after practical completion and costs without tangible economic benefit to the State. Exceptions required State agreement in writing and inclusion in the FAA.
Documentation had to be submitted in English, and applicants had to accept the State’s FAA terms.
How to apply
- Status
- lukket
- Åbner
- Lukker
- Vilkår for ansøgningsrunden
- Closed historical intake; these amounts and conditions describe the 2024 round.[^c3][^c20]
Applications are closed. Use the Department of Energy and Economic Diversification’s programme page for current information and its Lower Carbon Grants Team contact, innovation@deed.wa.gov.au.
The 2024 round used the Good Grants portal. Applicants submitted a project/business plan, risk assessment, financial model and supporting documents for competitive eligibility and merit assessment. The Department of Jobs, Tourism, Science and Innovation administered that round; successful applicants underwent due diligence before entering a funding agreement.