ARENA to fund integration of renewables in food processing

September 20 (Renewables Now ) - The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) will provide AUD 460,500 (USD 313,400/EUR 283,400) in state funding to food manufacturers incorporating renewable energy technologies in their production.

The financing will be extended to the Australian Alliance for Energy Productivity (A2EP), which leads a project supporting research initiatives that integrate renewables in process heating. In a press release on Friday, ARENA said its backing will provide around half of the funds for the AUD-900,500 project, under which 10 pre-feasibility studies have been undertaken at different sites across Australia.

ARENA pointed out that process heating in the food industry is the most power-consuming process in Australian manufacturing. The technologies to be tested are not widely used and include heat pumps powered by renewables and direct renewable heating such as biomass and biogas.

The next step in the initiative will be to select five projects that will progress to a full feasibility study. Three of those have already been named, with the full feasibility study for all five projects planned to be carried out by end-2019. If the results are positive, the projects will be able to apply for additional ARENA funding.

(AUD 1.0 = USD 0.68/EUR 0.615)

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