The federal government has finally launched its Emerging Renewables program to help support geothermal, ocean and solar technologies, and has expanded the funds by $26 million after effectively cancelling an equivalent amount of geothermal drilling grants. Resources and Energy Minister Martin Ferguson said the Emerging Renewables fund would now stand at $126 million, with up to one third of these funds reserved for the geothermal industry following the repatriation of funds.

A total of four grants allocated under the Geothermal Drilling Program were not taken up because the companies, small listed entities on the ASX, were not able to secure matching funding under the terms set down by the government. These companies are believed to be Greenearth Energy, Torrens Energy, Hot Rocks Ltd, and Green Rock. The new program will allow for a more flexible funding mechanism to be administered by the Australian Centre for Renewable Energy, and there will be no deadline for the allocation or the spending of funds. Ferguson said the flexible approach responded to industry feedback.

The new mechanisms were recommended by ACRE chair Mary O’Kane in her Strategic Directions document delivered to the minister earlier this year, which sought to address some of the problems in the grants-based model favoured by the government, where many allocations have not been accessed. However, a spokesperson for the minister said funding for geothermal, ocean and solar projects will still be made on a “merits-based” grants approach, but will not necessarily be made on a 1:1 or 1:2 basis.

The Emerging Renewables fund was first announced in last year’s election campaign, with $40 million originally allocated, and was to have been allocated by the end of the 2010/11 financial year. It was delayed, but then boosted to $100 million in the May budget, receiving previously unallocated ACRE funds. ACRE will manage the program while the new Australian Renewable Energy Agency, which will manage $3.2 billion in funds, is established. This process is expected to take up to 12 months, but Ferguson said it was important to open the program now to “keep up momentum” in the industry.

Ferguson, on Monday, officially launched a hybrid solar project at the Australian National University that will look to develop hybrid systems that can combine the thermal qualities used for heating water with direct generation of electricity in an all-in-one rooftop system. The approach has received $3.2 million in funds under a program managed by the Australian Solar Institute.

Building steam

Panax Geothermal has landed a funding agreement with a privately held Vancouver-based company Molten Power Corporation for exploration and development costs in its portfolio of geothermal projects in Indonesia. Molten will contribute the first $10 million in exploration and development funds and receive a 50 per cent stake in the Panax subsidiary that holds Panax’s share in the projects in return. Further exploration and development costs will be shared between the two parties on a 50-50 basis.

Panax managing director Kerry Parker said the proposed partnership would allow Panax to aggressively pursue the development of its highly prospective assets in Indonesia. It has four projects with a combined targeted capacity of 300MW, of which Panax’ share is 165MW. Indonesia has been offering generous tariffs for geothermal projects to help support industrial development and replace highly expensive diesel generation.

“This transaction is a market-based endorsement of the unrecognised value of Panax’s assets as it implies a value for the Indonesian portfolio, which is twice the company’s current market capitalisation,” Parker said in a statement. “It’s a significant portion of funding that can be applied directly to our projects in Indonesia, and provides funding certainty for Panax as we grow into an international geothermal development and production company.” Molten will also make a direct $1 million investment in Panax, buying shares at 2c each, the same price as a recent rights issue.

Irish eyes

Carnegie Wave Energy says it has evaluated potential sites and a conceptual project design for a proposed 5MW commercial demonstration project in Irish waters. The studies, jointly funded by the Irish Government’s Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, were undertaken by RPS Consulting Engineers and assessed a number of potential near-shore sites along the west coast of Ireland. Potential sites were assessed using a number of key factors, including wave resource, grid connectivity, constructability and environmental sensitivities. Carnegie says the study concluded that a wave energy project using its CETO technology is viable with existing Irish ocean energy incentives, including the 500MW ocean energy target, grant support and the ocean energy feed-in tariff.