Community Batteries Funding Initiative
Grants for eligible Australian organisations deploying portfolios of community batteries that store solar energy and ease pressure on electricity networks.
Această oportunitate este disponibilă momentan în limba engleză.
The initiative, delivered under ARENA’s Advancing Renewables Program (ARP), supports community batteries across Australia to lower energy bills, cut emissions and allow more distributed solar generation. The terms below describe the closed second round.
Round 2 expected grant requests of AUD 5 million to AUD 20 million, capped at 50% of battery capital expenditure. This means acquiring and installing batteries, inverters and essential equipment, connection works, essential operating IT and safety measures; development and other soft costs are outside that cap calculation. ARENA seeks the minimum funding needed for commercial viability and expects grants below the 50% ceiling, with committed co-investment covering the balance. Ongoing operation and maintenance costs are not funded.
Eligible expenditure is calculated excluding GST. Costs incurred before signing the funding agreement need ARENA’s prior written approval, requested after a funding offer; otherwise they are ineligible and at your risk. The ARP can include grants that must be paid back under agreed terms; the negotiated funding agreement determines those terms.
Under the published Round 2 agreement template, submit milestone deliverables through ARENANet and obtain ARENA’s acceptance before claiming the milestone payment. Keep ARENA informed through the agreed reports. During the agreement and for five years after the final milestone completion date, provide emissions, jobs and other reasonable project information when ARENA requests it. Keep project financial records, and require subcontractors to keep them, from commencement until seven years after that final milestone date.
The template allows recovery of misspent funds and funds not spent or legally committed at the final milestone or a due date for a further grant payment. At the final milestone, unused promised co-contributions allow ARENA to recover the same proportion of its funding as the share of promised contributions left unused. It also allows recovery for abandoning the project without resuming or demonstrating reasonable technical grounds within ten business days of notice, a change of control without prior written consent, or termination following insolvency. Recovery for serious breaches requires ARENA to terminate the agreement and is limited to the breaches in clause 32.2, such as misleading information, misuse of funding or a serious breach of confidentiality. For specified project delivery, knowledge sharing and reporting breaches, ARENA must also reasonably determine that the breach materially affects your ability to achieve the project outcomes. Repayment is due within twenty business days of receiving a repayment notice, with interest where applicable.
Eligibility
- Hold an Australian Business Number at application. Eligible leads include Australian Corporations Act entities, prescribed Commonwealth government business enterprises, state- or territory-owned corporations and their subsidiaries, state or federal statutory corporations, local governments or councils, and Australian bodies representing and supporting councils. The Round 2 FAQ also permits an applicant to warrant that it will be a Corporations Act entity by the funding agreement.
- Most project activities must take place in Australia. Overseas partners are allowed, but overseas activities need justification against the assessment criteria. Community groups must satisfy the same eligibility rules; experience delivering similar infrastructure affects merit.
- Round 2 requires at least ten chemical batteries, each rated 50–5,000 kW and connected to the electricity distribution network. The technology must meet TRL 9: the final system has operated across the full range of expected operating conditions. Co-located batteries or batteries sharing a connection point count as one, using their combined rated power. Individual household batteries are excluded. Where a battery is co-located with a generator or other load, the grant funds only the battery component.
- Projects already funded through Round 1 or the Community Batteries for Household Solar election-commitments grant opportunity are excluded. A Round 1 recipient may apply for wholly additional activity, with no previously funded batteries or associated deliverables included.
- Demonstrate that the project would not proceed without the requested grant and that you have the resources and co-funding to deliver it. ARENA expected complete construction within 24 months of signing the agreement. Assessment weighs contribution to objectives, capability, project design and risk, financial viability and knowledge sharing equally.
- Agree to share project knowledge and have the necessary rights to intellectual property. Knowledge sharing covers lessons and sector learning, with public or restricted audiences as appropriate; the FAQ excludes commercially sensitive information and IP from that sharing.
- Declare reasonable action on modern-slavery risks, comply with the Modern Slavery Act where applicable and assist ARENA’s compliance. You must not appear on the workplace gender equality non-compliance or designated-terrorist lists. Warrant that related corporate bodies and their personnel have not contravened Australian sanctions laws. You and related bodies must comply with those laws during delivery, with reasonable efforts to secure subcontractor compliance. After proper enquiry, disclose legal proceedings or investigations that are taking place, pending or threatened against you or a related corporate body. You and related bodies must not be on the National Redress Scheme list of institutions that have not joined or signified intent to join. Disclose past, current and future climate performance and plans.
The template normally requires variations in writing signed by both parties, with a notice-and-agreement route for minor changes. An unannounced battery can move within the same Australian state or territory without ARENA consent if you provide location details and an updated location appendix. Announced sites and other location changes require an agreed variation.
How to apply
- Statut
- închis
- Se deschide
- Se închide
- Condițiile sesiunii de finanțare
- Round 2 expression of interest; closed.
- Full applications were invitation only, from 1 July 2025 to 1 September 2025 at 11:59 PM Australian Eastern Standard Time; that stage is also closed.
Round 2 is closed. Read ARENA’s official round page and funding announcement for the historical application requirements.
The round used an expression of interest through ARENANet, followed by a full application only for applicants invited by ARENA. Invited applicants received a portal link. The full application stage ran from 1 July 2025 to 1 September 2025 at 11:59 PM Australian Eastern Standard Time; it was not open to new applicants. The full application required a project plan, budget, financial model, risk management and community consultation plans, the funding-agreement compliance table, funding sources and uses table, and conflict-of-interest declaration, using ARENA templates where specified.
Material proposal changes were not permitted between the expression of interest and full application. Examples included reducing battery numbers or total capacity by more than 20%, or increasing the grant request by more than 20%. Seek ARENA’s guidance on expected material changes. ARENA could decline a materially changed full application or decline to sign an agreement following a material change before execution.