The Greens have secured the establishment of an independent authority to manage $3.2 billion of renewable energy funding in an effective and coordinated manner as part of an agreement with the government and the independents to put a price on pollution.
As part of the agreement, all existing Commonwealth government renewable energy programs (except the Renewable Energy Target) will be administered by a new independent statutory body, the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), for the first time creating a systemic, whole-of-government approach to renewable energy at arm's length from government.
"I am very excited about ARENA," Australian Greens Deputy Leader, Senator Christine Milne, said.
"It has been obvious for years that renewable energy programs in Australia are a mess of badly-designed schemes run as photo opportunities rather than helping build the industry. ARENA will change all that."
ARENA's independent board will immediately manage $1.5 billion in committed funding and $1.7 billion in uncommitted funds to disburse as it sees fit in order to best support renewable energy research, development, commercialisation and demonstration.
"By bringing all these programs under an independent authority, we can finally deliver the consistent, systemic support the industry needs in order to challenge entrenched coal.
"There are currently 11 different funding programs run by the Commonwealth government for renewable energy and, historically, almost none of them have been appropriately run.
"Worst of all, government funding programs are announced with a big public splash, innovators and entrepreneurs start to gear up to deliver them, and, after months or years of delay, the programs are re-badged, re-allocated, scrapped or so badly designed that nobody is able to take advantage of them.
"A classic example has been the Solar Flagships program, which the Greens saved from being abandoned earlier in the year and for which we secured the roundtable today in Canberra.
"Australia's world renewable energy technologists and entrepreneurs have been forced through a boom bust cycle so many times that many give up and go overseas.
"ARENA will take the short-term politics out of renewable energy and deliver strong, consistent support to the industry so that it can be confident of a long-term, flourishing future.
"I am very hopeful that ARENA, alongside the successful renewable energy target and other renewable energy measures in the carbon price package, will energise all those currently working in the field, bring home many of our world leaders in renewables and create tens of thousands of jobs in this exciting sunrise industry."
Programs being rolled into ARENA are: Solar Flagships Program, Australian Solar Institute, Low Emissions Technology Development Fund (solar), Renewable Energy Demonstration Program, ACRE Solar Projects, Renewable Energy Venture Capital Fund, Australian Biofuels Research Institute, Emerging Renewables Program, Second Generation Biofuels Research and Development Program, Uncommitted funding from the Connecting Renewables Initiative.