Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2675 actions· ✨ 91 recent

The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) awarded a AUD 18.07 million grant to energy retailer Flow Power under the "Driving the Nation Program" to build the "Flow Power Highway" — a minimum 10-site, up to 84-charger ultrafast battery-electric-vehicle (BEV) charging network across Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney, delivering 29.4 MW of total charging capacity. The AUD 18.07 million grant leverages a AUD 70.23 million total project value, with Flow Power partnering UK charge-point operator GRIDSERVE (via its GIGATONS venture) for hardware, software and analytics. Announced 10 December 2025 alongside two smaller ARENA EV-infrastructure grants (Essential Energy AUD 2.3m for regional NSW chargers; UTS/RACE for 2030 CRC AUD 1.09m for a national vehicle-grid-integration network).

Australia's government-owned Clean Energy Finance Corporation announced on 9 December 2025 an AUD 70 million (approx. USD 46 million) financing package with Volvo Financial Services and Volvo Group Australia to accelerate electrification of Australia's trucking fleet. The package funds an interest-rate discount of up to 0.5 percentage points for eligible customers leasing medium- and heavy-duty battery-electric trucks (HD BEVs) and installing EV charging infrastructure, plus a residual-value support mechanism to reduce operating-lease costs and protect future HD BEV resale values. Volvo Group Australia has committed to manufacture electric trucks at its Wacol, Queensland facility (in production since 1972, 80,000+ trucks built) from 2026. Global Trade Alert separately logs the transaction as a "red"-flagged local-value-added and lending-support intervention (state act 95651).

On 3 December 2025, Export Finance Australia (EFA) disclosed a €120 million (~AU$196 million) loan commitment to Vulcan Energy Resources' Phase One Lionheart Project in Germany's Upper Rhine Valley, which will produce battery-quality lithium hydroxide monohydrate (LHM) from geothermal brine while co-generating renewable heat and power. The loan is part of a syndicated, multi-country export-credit package alongside Germany's KfW Raw Materials Fund, the European Investment Bank, Export Development Canada, Denmark's EIFO, France's Bpifrance Assurance Export, and Italy's SACE, financing a project with total capital cost of ~€2.193 billion (~AU$3.9 billion). Phase One targets 24,000 tonnes per annum of LHM, enough for roughly 500,000 electric vehicles.

The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) awarded a AUD 25 million grant to Melbourne battery-technology startup Relectrify to fast-track commercial deployment of its "AC1" battery energy storage system (BESS), a world-first design that eliminates the separate inverter by using a cell-level battery management system to produce AC power directly. The funding supports up to 100 MWh of AC1 deployments targeting commercial, industrial and small front-of-meter markets, generating operational performance data and reference installations, and builds on ARENA's earlier support for Relectrify's second-life EV-battery work.

On 19 August 2025 the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) opened applications for the Battery Breakthrough Initiative (BBI), an AUD 500 million capital-grant and production-incentive program to build domestic battery manufacturing capability across the value chain, from active materials to finished cells and packs. The program was first announced in the May 2024 Federal Budget as a pillar of the Future Made in Australia agenda and the National Battery Strategy, and is designed to strengthen supply-chain resilience by leveraging Australia's position as the world's largest lithium producer and a major nickel/cobalt/graphite supplier. Funding was subsequently cut to AUD 142.32 million in the 2026 Federal Budget (see amendments).

Australia's Future Made in Australia package, announced in the 2024-25 Federal Budget on 14 May 2024, commits A$22.7bn over 10 years to position Australia as a preferred supplier in the global clean-energy and critical-minerals supply chain. The two flagship production tax incentives are: (1) the Critical Minerals Production Tax Incentive (10% of eligible processing and refining costs for 31 critical minerals) and (2) the Hydrogen Production Tax Incentive (A$2 per kg of eligible renewable or low-emissions hydrogen, 2027-2040). A National Interest Framework administered by DISR determines which investments qualify. The framework act established a Future Made in Australia Coordinator and consolidated existing industrial-support vehicles (NAIF, EFA) under a single policy lens.

Act No. 9 of 2025, given Royal Assent on 14 February 2025, enacts the two production tax credits announced in the May 2024 Future Made in Australia package. Schedule 1 creates the Hydrogen Production Tax Incentive (HPTI): A$2/kg refundable tax offset for eligible renewable hydrogen produced with emissions intensity below 0.6 kgCO2e/kg H2. Schedule 2 creates the Critical Minerals Production Tax Incentive (CMPTI): a refundable 10% tax offset on eligible processing and refining expenditure for the 31 minerals on Australia's Critical Minerals List. Both offsets apply to production occurring between 1 July 2027 and 30 June 2040, capped at 10 years per project, administered by the ATO via new Divisions 419 (CMPTI) and 421 (HPTI) of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997.

The Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC), Australia's government-owned green bank, approved a senior project finance loan of up to USD 47 million to Salt Lake Potash Ltd (ASX/AIM: SO4), part of a USD 138 million syndicated senior debt facility (alongside Taurus Mining Finance Fund No. 2) to build the Lake Way sulphate-of-potash (SOP) brine project near Wiluna, Western Australia. The facility funds construction of Australia's first greenfield SOP brine operation, part-powered by a 5MW solar farm and 2MW battery, targeted at cutting SOP production emissions by more than 30% versus conventional non-brine methods.