Antinuclear

The CEFC, in its annual report, said it had invested more than $2 billion in new capital to support renewable energy projects valued at more than $6.5 billion. Over the previous two years, the CEFC had only committed $1.32 billion in total.

Its total portfolio of investments now sits at $3.4 billion.

The CEFC said for every dollar it had invested in a project it helped to leverage an additional $2.10 from the private sector.

As well as investing in renewable energy projects, the group announced funding for a lithium mine, tapping into the growing demand for the metal that supplies rechargeable batteries.

CEFC’s projects are forecast to produce an annual abatement of nearly 7.3 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, or more than 121 million tonnes of CO2-e over its projects’ lifetimes.

The investments have had a positive yield for the nation beyond decarbonisation, CEFC chief executive Ian Learmonth said.

“Our $3.4 billion portfolio of investment commitments had a forecast lifetime investment yield of more than 5 per cent,” he said.

In the future, the Clean Energy Finance Corporation said it would invest in distributed energy, energy storage, improved grid transmission, network security and demand-response management.

The CEFC’s pipelines of investment has more than doubled since it began in 2014.

“This growth reflects increased interest in clean energy investment, coupled with a broader understanding of the role of the CEFC in working with investors and project developers,” the company said in its annual report.