National next gen PPAs program

Chief Investigator

Jackie McKeon, UTS

Purpose of project

In partnership with Business Renewables Centre Australia, ARENA, UTS and UNSW (to be determined), RACE for 2030 will support big business to help Australia meet its 2030 and 2050 emissions reduction targets via this action-research Program for Next Gen PPAs.

Together with industry, the project will seek to deliver and understand the key success factors needed for large-scale decarbonisation of Australia’s C&I sector via six live group-buying processes that will integrate energy management innovations.

The project will:

• Accelerate the decarbonisation of Australia’s industrial companies who may not otherwise contract a PPA alone by supporting their PPA process: Reducing industrial emissions by 5.5 – 12.3 million tonnes CO2-e and bring forward larger energy user net zero targets across the Program.
• Deliver energy cost savings and greater price certainty to industrial businesses by enabling larger group offtakes and supporting the business case for investment in energy management initiatives such as electrification of industrial processes.
• Stimulate up to $6 – 14 billion in investment in renewables by Australian business into solar, wind or battery/hybrid development which may not otherwise have been built (additionality), supporting investments in the distribution grid and decarbonising the grid.
• Reducing the cost of the energy transition – supporting better matching of demand with supply.

Next Generation PPAs’ will not only deliver contributions to Australia’s and participating business’ emissions reduction targets, they will leverage the latest advancements in demand flexibility, electrification, thermal storage, supply chain purchasing and other options – to meet business goals, to deliver a scalable model for industry decarbonisation and a foundation for better long-term energy and carbon management across Australian industry.