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The results for knowledge sharing provide additional information about industry-wide learning for the PBS performance measure ‘Effectively manage projects in accordance with agreement terms to deliver intended outcomes, learn and improve’.

ARENA invested significant effort to ensure that its projects delivered the maximum benefit by sharing knowledge and lessons learned to improve understanding, build networks and inform decision-making.

Every newly-contracted project during 2018-19 included a Knowledge Sharing (KS) Plan as part of the funding agreement between ARENA and the funding recipient.

The KS Plan sets out what information and knowledge generated during the activity will be provided, and how, when and with whom it will be shared.

The KS deliverables are relevant to the specific project outcomes and also aim to provide industry with knowledge that can help de-risk follow-on projects, accelerate deployment of safe and commercially viable technologies, increase public understanding and confidence in new technologies, support capability development, and inform future policy-making.

In addition to project KS deliverables, this reporting period has seen an increase in ARENA-led activities to maximise the impact of ARENA project knowledge. This involved a significant program of work, which included convening two major ARENA Insights Forums to share lessons from projects that cut across technologies and inform the broader industry.

Feedback from the Forums indicated that ARENA KS is highly valued by industry and opportunities to collaborate and share knowledge directly in forums and workshops is viewed as important to the establishment and expansion of networks. In the June forum, 95 per cent of respondents reported making new connections at the event.

International engagement helps inform industry and government to better navigate the energy transition. Inviting international speakers to share expertise, knowledge and experience is an important part of this. The Knowledge Sharing ARENA Insights Forums provide an opportunity to share international lessons that inform ARENA projects and the broader industry.

The keynote speaker at the second ARENA Insights Forum, Ms Lorraine Akiba, former Commissioner at the Hawaiian Utilities Commission, provided lessons and challenges from a high renewables grid and Hawaii’s transition to 100 per cent clean energy by 2045. ARENA arranged a schedule of meetings for Ms Akiba to speak to key players in the Australian energy transition.

ARENA also led seven workshops and webinars in which industry players and state governments shared lessons learned from ARENA projects and discussed the challenges and opportunities of renewable energy technologies.

In addition, this reporting period saw the development of the ARENA Insights newsletter to share reports, lessons and insights from ARENA’s projects directly to industry audiences. Eight editions were delivered to approximately 2000 subscribers.

Activity performance measures

Provide information, advice and knowledge to advance renewable energy

RESULT

RESULT

The first ARENA Insights Forum was held in Sydney in November 2018 and was split into two streams: large-scale projects and distributed energy resources. This forum had 13 presenters, 33 panelists and 135 attendees.

The second Insights Forum was held in June 2019 in Sydney and featured an international speaker, Lorraine Akiba, a former Commissioner of the Hawaiian Public Utilities Commission. This forum had 12 presenters, 35 panelists and 195 attendees.

The workshops and events involved bringing together industry, and covered a range of topics including virtual power plants, demand response, short-term forecasting and large-scale battery storage. We also ran a webinar about SunSHIFT’s Redeployable Solar Project. There was a total of 295 attendees at the ARENA-run workshops and webinars.

RESULT

In 2018-19 ARENA prepared 15 Ministerial briefs on the following topics: seeking approval (4), providing information (9), ministerial correspondence (1) and other (1).

Outcome performance measures

Industry and government better informed to navigate the energy transition

RESULT

ARENA-funded projects and ARENA activities were cited in a range of influential publications and also earned recognition by winning an industry innovation award.

RESULT

See previous tables for users of knowledge sharing products and attendance at knowledge sharing events.

ARENA’s media reach continued to climb with 37 project-related media releases reaching a collective 37 million people, based on media monitoring data.

RESULT

Feedback from ARENA’s quarterly knowledge sharing survey (66 respondents each representing one unique project):

• 75 per cent find ARENA’s knowledge sharing activities to be valuable to their work and feel ARENA is useful as a knowledge sharing resource
• 71 per cent reported that they have either formed new relationships or strengthened existing relationships as a result of knowledge sharing activities
• only 17 per cent reported that they have not been contacted to share knowledge about their project. Of these, the main reason was that the project was in its early stages.

Feedback from participants in ARENA’s Insights Forums (73 respondents):

• participants provided an overall satisfaction rating of 8.6/10 for the event
• participants provided a rating of 8.8/10 for the value of ARENA knowledge sharing to their organisation
• 95 per cent of respondents reported making new connections at the event.