ARENA is a $2.5 billion Australian government agency established in 2012 to improve the competitiveness of renewable energy technologies and increase renewable energy supply in Australia. It provides funding across the innovation chain from research to commercial deployment. Key priorities include integrating renewables into grids including storage, renewables in remote areas, and off-grid solutions. Notable projects ARENA has funded include several large solar farms, concentrating solar thermal research, an online energy storage testing platform, and renewable energy projects for remote communities and industry.

1. 6th July 2015
Greg Bourne – ARENA Board Chair
greg.bourne@iinet.net.au
0410 479 253
ARENA briefing

2. 2
Australian Renewable Energy Agency
$2.5 billion
in funding
to 2022
$1.1 billion
committed
to date
Established
in 2012 to
Improve
competitiveness
of renewable energy
technologies
Increase supply
of renewable energy
in Australia
Knowledge
Collect, analyse, interpret and disseminate information and
knowledge relating to renewable energy

3. 3
Technology push Market pull
research development demonstration deployment
Supported
commercial
Competitive
commercial
Commercial
scale
Pilot
scale
ARC Discovery, Linkage
and CoEs for Universities
Emissions Reduction
Fund
CEFC
ARENA
•Creating options for the future
•Focused on long term industry and technology development, not near term
emissions reduction
REVC
RET
ARENA is the only funding organisation to
span the entire innovation chain
• Note: CEFC and the Renewable Energy Venture Capital fund (REVC) operate in the supported commercial and competitive commercial space

4. 4
Technologies Barriers Opportunities
Integrating Renewables and Grids (including storage)
Renewables in Fringe of Grid & constrained areas
Off-grid renewables
Potential large scale solar PV round in consultation
Renewables in Industrial Processes being investigated
Research & Development
round 2
Priorities
Priorities – ARENA sees significant opportunity in these areas and actively seeks
proposals
ARENA’s Priorities

5. 5
Greenough River
Solar Farm
(10MW - 2012)
Nyngan Solar
Plant (102MW -
2015)
Broken Hill
Solar Plant
(53MW - 2015)
Royalla Solar
Farm (20MW -
2014)
• ARENA has supported the three largest
solar projects in Australia.
• Approximately 60% of cost is local. Car
parts manufacturers are major balance of
systems producers.
• Substantial opportunity to reduce local
supply chain and financing costs.
-
1,000
2,000
3,000
4,000
5,000
6,000
7,000
8,000
US China Germany India UK Spain Italy Canada France South
Africa
Thailand Ukraine Japan Chile Romania Australia
(Oct 14)
Australia
(Dec 15)
Largest utility solar PV markets by installed capacity as at 31 Oct 2014 (MW)
Moree Solar
Farm
(56MW - 2016)
Although Australia leads residential solar
penetration, we lag in utility scale

6. 6
$80 – $100 = wind parity
$140 – $170 = current project LCOE range
$190 – $250 = solar flagships levelised cost of energy (LCOE)
LCOE$/MWh
2010 2015 2020
$170 – $200 = ACT FIT (1)
Note (1): FRV Royalla (20 MW) and Elementus (7 MW) were $186/MWh, Mugga Lane (13 MW) was $178/MWh. Adjusting for indexation provides a range of $150-160/MWh.
However, the ACT FIT provides for a lower cost of capital than the 10% pre-tax assumption used in ARENA’s LCOE calculations.
$110 – $130 = ARENA near-term target range
2017
Cost reduction path in utility scale PV

7. 7
• CSP has a different value proposition to solar PV in providing dispatchable power due to cheap
storage
• In the current over-supplied market, this has no/little value. In other market circumstances might
be worth as much as $50-60/MWh (eg high renewables penetration scenario).
• Based on LCOE (a measure of cost rather than value) CSP is currently not competitive with PV
although developers are targeting significantly lower costs by 2020
• Capital costs are in the order of $10-15/W based on feasibility studies by RATCH (Collinsville),
Abengoa (Perenjori) and Alinta (Port Augusta)
LCOE$/MWh
2011
(IRENA)(1)
2015
(Alinta feasibility study)
$220-290
2018 – 2022
Industry targets (2)
$201
$120 - 180
Notes
(1): Cost Analysis of CSP globally (IRENA) – June 2012 (USD/MWh)
(2): Represents 10-40% cost reduction compared to the Alinta study with range determined by technology, location and scale
Concentrating solar power (CSP) relative to PV
2014
(RATCH feasibility study)
$297

8. 8
Concentrated Solar Thermal Plants
ARENA committed $150m funding to 50 solar thermal projects (total value
>$350m)
Vast Solar:
• 1.2MW solar array with high temp. receiver and integrated thermal storage (completed)
$437,000 ARENA funding
• 6MW concentrated solar thermal system (undergoing commissioning) $5m ARENA funding
Abengoa:
• Perenjori Dispatchable Solar Thermal Power Feasibility (end of 2015) $450,000 ARENA funding
Ratch Australia Corporation Ltd:
• Feasibility study for converting Collinsville Power Station (Qld) to 30MW hybrid solar
thermal/gas power station (completed) $1m ARENA funding. Determine not to be viable.
Alinta Energy (SA):
• Feasibility study to access viability of concentrated solar thermal plant with molten-salt
storage (April 2016) $1m ARENA funding

9. 9
Project Snapshots

10. 10
- ARENA launched a research & development funding round on
13 April; expressions of interest closed 3 July 2015.
- Focus on researcher-industry collaboration
- Priorities:
- Balance-of-system costs
- Integrating renewables and grids
- Renewable energy for industrial processes
- Renewable energy integrated into buildings or building materials
Supercritical C02 Power block – University of Queensland
Research and Development round
Funded under the Australian Solar Thermal Research Initiative
(Value $12m+; ARENA $5.0m+).
Development of small to medium scale energy generation (0.5
to 20MW) system, for remote stand-alone and edge-of-grid
applications, as an alternative to costly network upgrades and
diesel generation.
2013 – 2018

11. 11
- New knowledge bank as central repository for energy
storage:
- Central source for existing knowledge and will capture any new knowledge
- Test platform builds industry confidence in energy storage
technologies
- Platform to test energy storage systems before deployment
- Can connect to any site on/off grid.
- Provides capability to independently test energy storage systems
- New research infrastructure to accelerate battery storage
investment in Australia
ARENA Funding : $1.4 million. Total Project value: $3.3 million.
University of Adelaide – Online energy
storage test platform and knowledge bank

12. 12
- Pilot concentrating solar thermal system including storage
- Project provides data to validate cost/efficiency performance supporting
progress towards target of $100/MWh
Vast Solar 6 MW concentrating solar thermal
pilot project (Jemalong, NSW)
ARENA Funding provided: $4.99 million. Total Project value: $10.06 million

13. 13
Weipa Solar Farm
Total Value: $23.4m; ARENA: $11.3m
Two stage construction and operation of a 6.7
MW solar PV farm at Rio Tinto Alcan’s remote
bauxite operation in Weipa, Far North
Queensland.
Demonstrates reliability and potential for cost
savings
Re-deployable Hybrid Power, Laing O’Rourke
Total Value: $2.22m; ARENA: $0.85m
Two measures to test the feasibility and first
deployment of containerised solar PV-diesel
hybrid plant
Removes the need for a long term project to
make solar viable
Regional Australia Renewables

14. 14
Thank You