Citizens Own Renewable Energy Network Australia (CORENA)

CORENA is a registered charity dedicated to climate action. Established in 2013, our mission is to enable all Australians to help tackle the climate emergency by donating to tangible projects that reduce carbon emissions.

To achieve this, CORENA offers zero interest loans and technical assistance to eligible non profits for climate projects which are repaid using their energy cost savings. Eligible projects include solar panels, batteries, energy efficiency or electric fleet vehicles.

The non profit’s we support range from local community centres to large community service organisations. Many are struggling with rising energy prices and our loans assist them to not only reduce their carbon emissions but also their operating costs. 80% of the loan repayments are directed to our "revolving energy fund" and used to directly fund further projects and up to 20% of repayments are used to find and provide technical support to new projects meaning your donation is returned to CORENA and used over and over again.

To date we have funded over $1.5 million in climate projects all over Australia. Due to the multiplying effect of the revolving energy fund, we estimate that $100 donated to our first project has been used to fund over $450 of climate projects. We estimate our projects have saved over 4000 tonnes of carbon dioxide and 6,500 MWh of electricity.

Our current funding priorities include contributions to our upcoming projects as well as energy management capacity building and support costs for the loan recipients.

WEBSITE