Energy Efficient Loans boost productivity for manufacturing, agriculture

A $100 million loan program is helping Australian businesses accelerate projects to boost their energy productivity.

The Energy Efficient Loan program, a joint initiative from the Commonwealth Bank and Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC), is financing technologies that reduce energy costs.

CEFC CEO Oliver Yates said that the program had already financed $20 million in projects from the agriculture and manufacturing sectors. He said the typical projects the CEFC is financing would see agribusinesses expecting to halve their on-grid electricity or gas consumption by switching to on-site generation and manufacturers upgrading equipment to lower their energy costs by up to 30%.

“We’re experiencing growing interest in Energy Efficient Loans and even seeing some businesses, after experiencing the positive results, look to financing additional upgrades to improve the efficiency of their operations even further,” he said.

Recent Energy Efficient Loan participants include:

• Goulburn Valley-based fruit supplier Radevski Coolstores undertook a refrigeration upgrade financed by an Energy Efficient Loan in 2013. Radevski Coolstores has been granted $4.2 million in new finance to install a state-of-the-art fruit grader and solar PV, to cut its overall energy costs by a quarter.
• Wangaratta-based fresh produce supplier Nu Fruit is installing 100 kW of solar PV to generate more than 10% of its own energy, reducing its grid electricity needs. The supermarket supplier is accessing $220,000 from the Energy Efficient Loan program.

The program has also assisted with the installation of a gas-fired trigeneration plant for a major meat processing and rendering business, new ovens for a plastic manufacturer, a refrigeration upgrade for an apple and chestnut grower and new printing presses for a major labelling company.

The program’s pipeline includes proposals for purpose-built equipment upgrades for manufacturers and the installation of solar for a major specialist retailer.