Grants of up to $25,000 to support eligible small and medium businesses to purchase energy efficient equipment to reduce and manage energy usage and costs.
Current status of program
CLOSED
To register your interest in future rounds or discuss alternative grant opportunities please contact us here.
On this page you will find
What is Energy Efficiency Grants (EEG) for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises funding?
The Energy Efficiency Grants for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises Round 2 will support businesses to upgrade or replace inefficient equipment to improve their energy efficiency. These upgrades will enable industries to reduce their energy use, manage energy cost volatility in the long term and contribute to Australia’s target of a 43% reduction on 2005 emission levels by 2030.
EEG level of support
Grants
- Minimum $10,000
- Maximum $25,000
- Maximum 100% of total project costs
EEG important dates
- This program is currently closed
- Register your interest here with GrantHelper
EEG objectives
The objectives of the program are:
- improve energy efficiency practices and increase the uptake of energy efficient technologies
- assist small and medium businesses to manage their energy usage and costs
- reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The intended outcomes of the program are:
- increase awareness of energy efficiency opportunities and help businesses to save energy
- reduced power bills for small and medium businesses
- emissions abatement to contribute to Australia reducing its emissions to 43% below 2005 levels by 2030.
Activities eligible for EEG support
To be eligible your project must:
- be aimed at reducing the energy consumption of your business in Australia
- have at least $10,000 in eligible expenditure
- be limited to one or more of the activities listed in Appendix B of the guidelines
- be entirely located within the state or territory (jurisdiction) you are applying for.
See the guidelines for full details of eligible projects.
Expenditure eligible for EEG support
Eligible expenditure items are:
- an energy audit of your site or part of your site
- purchase or hire of equipment to measure, monitor and record energy use or to monitor a process, where this facilitates optimisation or energy management
- purchase of new equipment to replace, or upgrade, existing equipment, where the new equipment is higher energy efficiency
- costs to decommission, remove and dispose of the old equipment that is replaced
- purchase of new equipment or components to help an existing system run more efficiently in regard to energy
- design, and reasonable installation costs of new eligible equipment, including any necessary wiring or other electrical work required to enable the project
- commissioning or tuning of equipment installed or modified as part of the project, and any related equipment that is affected by the project
- building permits or approval costs to install equipment, where required
- the cost of suppliers, consultants and contracted labour undertaking eligible project activities.
Ineligible expenditure items are:
- purchase and/or installation of energy generation equipment such as solar panels or biomass generation systems
- any activities that support ineligible activities (e.g. installation of solar panels).
- purchase of solar panel, inverter or battery components for solar-powered pumping systems
- purchase of electrical energy storage equipment, such as batteries
- purchase of televisions, entertainment systems, laptops, computers and associated equipment
- internal salaries and labour costs for employees of your business
- the cost of business as usual activities, including: annual maintenance, rent, water, rates, and consumables such as paper, printer cartridges, office supplies, brochures and other marketing materials, kitchen supplies including food
- purchase of vehicles, new or used as well as electric vehicle chargers
- purchase of equipment that is not related to improving the energy efficiency of your business (e.g. equipment for domestic use or that is primarily for another type of activity at your site)
- maintenance and repair costs for equipment
- costs associated with switching from electricity to gas
- purchase of new equipment where it replaces equipment that is broken or no longer functional
- costs related to preparing the grant application, preparing any project reports (except costs of independent audit reports we require) and preparing any project variation requests.
See the guidelines for full details of eligible and ineligible expenditure.
EEG important details that you will need to know
Organisations eligible for EEG support
To be eligible you must:
- have an ABN
and be one of the following entity types:
- an entity incorporated in Australia
- a partnership
- a sole trader
- an incorporated trustee on behalf of a trust.
Only applicants who satisfy all of the below requirements will be accepted:
- small and medium sized businesses with an employee headcount from 1 to 199 employees averaged over any consecutive 12 month period since 1 July 2020. We may ask you to provide evidence of your calculation. Employee headcount includes employees across any and all related body corporates (as defined in the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth)).
- small and medium sized businesses who have been in operation for a minimum of 24 months
- applicants that have consent from the owner of the project location to undertake the project, if the entity is not the owner of the project location (see Section 6.1 for the requirements in relation to consent)
- applicants that provide the mandatory attachments listed at Section 6.1 of the guidelines.
You are not eligible to apply if you are:
- an organisation included on the National Redress Scheme’s website on the list of ‘Institutions that have not joined or signified their intent to join the Scheme’
- an employer of 100 or more employees that has not complied with the Workplace Gender Equality Act (2012)
- a business that has more than 199 employees
- an unincorporated association
- any organisation not included in section 1 of the guidelines
- a trust (however, an incorporated trustee may apply on behalf of a trust)
- insolvent or have owners/directors that are bankrupt
- a Commonwealth, state, territory or local government body (including government business enterprises, public schools and public hospitals)
- a non-corporate Commonwealth entity.
See the guidelines for full details of applicant eligibility requirements.
EEG assessment process
Your application will be considered through a demand driven grant process. Grants will be awarded to eligible applicants on a first come, first served basis in each jurisdiction until the funding in the relevant jurisdiction is exhausted.
See the guidelines for full details of the assessment process.
How do I get the EEG?
- You should read and understand the guidelines.
- You need to ensure you are eligible for the funding. Applicants that do not meet all the eligibility criteria outlined above will not be considered.
- Successful applicants will demonstrate a project that will lead to energy efficiency gains and reduced costs to their business.
- Eligible projects are funded on a first come, first served basis. It is important, therefore, that you move quickly and fully complete your grant application for submission on (or as soon as possible after) the application opening date, to maximise your chance of success.
- Your project must be based in the state or territory (jurisdiction) that your project activities are physically located in. You may only select one jurisdiction.
Information to prepare for the EEG application
You must provide the following mandatory attachments with your application:
- evidence of costs for project items and/or activities (e.g. quote/s, catalogue/website advertised price etc)
- trust deed (where applicable)
- evidence of the owner’s authority to conduct the project at the nominated site(s) using the letter template on business.gov.au and GrantConnect (where you are not the owner).
The total of all attachments cannot exceed 20MB. Information in attachments that are not requested will not be considered.
See the guidelines and sample application form for full details of information requirements.
Applying for the EEG
Applications are submitted online via the GrantConnect portal.
Register your interest here with GrantHelper to explore your alignment with this program and how we can assist you to increase your chances of success.
EEG resources
I need help applying for grants
Our Insights showcase some of the grant-winning methods we employ at GrantHelper, and they will help you create a stronger grant application. But no matter how well prepared you are, winning grants takes time—something we know many business owners and directors just don’t have. And that’s why we’re here to help.
- Check out our How to Prepare Before You Apply insight to help you reduce the stress levels when you apply for a grant.
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