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The Protecting Our Places program encourages and empowers Aboriginal communities to protect, conserve and restore landscapes and waterways important to them.

The program has 3 key objectives:

• Enabling Aboriginal communities to gain more autonomy over their projects, strengthening their ability to deliver favourable results for their cultural heritage, cultural practices and the environment.
• Promoting the sharing and safeguarding of cultural knowledge among Aboriginal groups, government agencies and the community. This enables Aboriginal people to influence the management and preservation of their cultural and environmental resources on their ancestral lands.
• Ensuring land that is culturally important to Aboriginal communities is protected, restored, improved and managed by local Aboriginal groups, land managers and other stakeholders in a way that fosters Healthy Country. This approach deepens the connection between Aboriginal people and their traditional lands and waterways.

The clean technology innovation grant supports commercialisation of lab-proven climate technologies that have potential to significantly reduce emissions in NSW and are aligned to the priority areas as identified in the NSW Office of the Chief Scientist and Engineer’s Decarbonisation Innovation Study.

The key objectives are to:

• repeatedly test the technical and commercial feasibility, viability and/or compliance of a product or project
• accelerate and expand the research, development and commercialisation of low emissions technologies that show potential to become scalable, replicable and cost-effective
• create an ecosystem that can develop the capability to drive repeated clean technology innovation
• attract world-class clean technology companies and innovations to domestic markets and convert NSW into a clean technology superpower.

The renewable manufacturing grant supports the NSW emerging renewable energy sector by investing in local manufacturing of renewable energy infrastructure such as wind tower, solar panels, batteries and transmission cables.

The grant objectives are to:

• drive economic growth across NSW – supply competitive goods and services, promote exports, attract investment, create jobs and sustainable employment, and provide opportunities for small and medium sized businesses.
• grow NSW’s renewable energy supply chain capacity and capability – expand existing capacity, invest in new industry capacity and capabilities, achieve scale-at-speed, scale up local innovative commercial technologies, and leverage NSW’s existing highly skilled industrial workforce.
• alleviate supply chain risk and secure supply for the NSW renewable energy sector – address capacity gaps, support onshore manufacturing and diversify input origins, and reinforce Energy, Social and Governance (ESG) consideration.

To be eligible for funding, you must confirm that your proposed project:

• will deliver new or expanded industrial facilities located in NSW
• will manufacture eligible renewable energy infrastructure at commercial scale*. This includes components suitable for grid-scale renewable energy generation, storage and transmission such as, but not limited to, wind towers, solar panels, batteries and transmission cables
• is expected to be fully delivered within 4 years of execution of the funding deed and no later than 30 June 2032
• is sustainable without continued government investment
• would not occur in NSW at all, or in the same timeframe, without government support
• has a funding need from this grant opportunity in the range of $5 million to $30 million, representing no more than 50% of the eligible project costs
• has a viable commercial strategy
• has a minimum financial contribution of at least 50% of the eligible project costs from non-NSW Government sources (for example, applicant, collaborators, private or other public organisations). In-kind (non-financial) contributions are not counted towards the 50% contribution for the eligible project costs.

*The technologies and processes used to manufacture the renewable energy components must be within the Commercial Readiness Index (CRI) 3-6.

The objective of this program is to provide support to regional town and village water supplies that are threatened by circumstances that could not be reasonably planned for, such as an extreme dry period or extreme water quality event.

Who can apply:

• Local councils and County Councils, as identified under the Local Government Act 1993 (providing water supply and/or sewerage services under Section 56).
• Water supply authorities (as identified in the Water Management Act 2000). 
• Joint organisations (as defined by the Office of Local Government). 
• Town water suppliers in unincorporated areas.

Who the grant is targeted towards:

The grant will only apply to essential domestic, commercial, industrial and institutional purposes in urban areas, or to essential domestic purposes in non-urban areas. The basis of subsidy for water cartage will be the actual cost of cartage, subject to Council targeting minimum essential quantities and implementing a high level of water restrictions that prohibits outdoor usage.

If water is carted for drinking purposes, the eligible organisation must follow NSW Health’s ‘NSW Guidelines for Water Carters’ document.

Types of projects funded under this grant:

Emergency financial grant assistance

Where water cartage is agreed as the most cost-effective means of maintaining essential supplies, the department may pay a subsidy based on eligible costs incurred.

Financial assistance can also be provided for the emergency provision of bottled water in exceptional circumstances.

Emergency infrastructure grant assistance

The cost of design and construction of approved water emergency works where the source of supply is at very high or imminent risk of failure or has failed as the result of an extreme event.