Energy Efficient Loans accelerate $20m in projects to boost competitiveness of Australian businesses

28 January 2015

Australian businesses are using Commonwealth Bank and Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) finance to accelerate $20 million in energy productivity boosting projects.

The Energy Efficient Loan program, a $100 million initiative of the CEFC and Commonwealth Bank, is financing technologies that reduce energy costs and assist Australian businesses to consolidate their market position.

CEFC CEO Oliver Yates said the CEFC is proud to be offering a product that was making demonstrated differences to businesses future-proofing against rising energy costs by making it easier to finance energy efficiency and renewable energy improvements.

“We’re very pleased with the response from business in the agriculture sector and from manufacturers in the program’s early stages, with finance towards projects totalling $20 million in value to date,” he said.

Mr Yates said that in projects the CEFC is financing, agribusinesses typically would expect to halve their on-grid electricity or gas consumption by switching to onsite generation and manufacturers upgrading equipment could expect to lower their energy costs by up to 30 per cent.

“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.

The most recent Energy Efficient Loan participants are: 

• Goulburn Valley-based fruit supplier Radevski Coolstores benefited from a refrigeration upgrade undertaken with Energy Efficient Loan finance in 2013, Radevski Coolstores is now installing a state-of-the-art fruit grader and solar PV, to cut its overall energy costs by a quarter. The $4.2 million in new finance will help Radevski Coolstores remain at the leading edge in technology innovation in the fruit processing and storage industry. Watch the video
• Wangaratta-based fresh produce supplier Nu Fruit Pty Ltd is installing 100KW of solar PV to generate more than 10 per cent of its own energy, reducing its grid electricity needs. The major supermarket supplier is accessing $220,000 from the Energy Efficient Loan program. Watch the video

The Energy Efficient Loan 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.

About the Energy Efficient Loan

The Commonwealth Bank and CEFC are each providing $50 million towards the $100 million Energy Efficient Loan program which is designed to help businesses, particularly those from the manufacturing sector, upgrade equipment to reduce energy costs. The tailored loans are typically for amounts over $500,000 and can be used to finance up to 100 per cent of the purchase price, allowing businesses to preserve working capital for other purposes.

Projects seeking finance are assessed against the CEFC’s project eligibility criteria for renewables, low emissions and energy efficiency technologies.