Australia’s green bank, the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, handed out and committed to record amounts of finance for the green energy transition in the last year, but says a lot more needs to be done to keep the country on track for its renewable and net zero targets.

The CEFC is describing the last year as a “landmark”, with a record $4.7 billion committed to large scale renewable projects, transmission infrastructure, and other initiatives – up from the previous record of $3.5 billion – and a record $2.9 billion actually deployed.

But CEFC chief executive officer Ian Learmonth says a lot more needs to be done, and the financing of the transition from coal to renewables still presents a “once in a generation” challenge, as well as an economic opportunity.

“Look, it’s a big task,” Learmonth says in the latest episode of Renew Economy’s weekly Energy Insiders podcast, which is to be published on Monday.

“If you include storage, transmission, wind, solar, out to 2030, we’ve seen a figure like $170 billion (that is needed). So all up, it is a big number. And we’re playing our role, we are trying to take that first loss, take that longer tenor, to unlock the further capital out there.”

That is just for the grid. For Australia’s economy wide net zero target – currently set for 2050 (although environmental groups such as the Climate Council think it should be brought forward to 2035) – BloombergNEF says Australia needs to invest some US$59 billion ($92 billion) every year between now and 2030, or 2.6 times current levels

Learmonth says the CEFC is important because those institutions with perhaps the deepest pockets, the giant super funds, are frequently hampered by regulatory constraints, and rigid security arrangements.

It means they find it difficult to invest in unregulated environments such as wind, solar and storage. “So they want to play a role. But I’m not seeing them play as significant a role as we’d like,” Learmonth says. But the big international institutions like Blackrock, Brookfield and others are investing.

The bulk of the commitments made by the CEFC in the last financial year was in transmission, through the Rewiring the Nation fund set up by Labor to support the infrastructure needs for its target of 82 per cent renewables by 2030.

Transmission costs, however, have soared, and delays in construction and planning approvals are also causing problems. Learmonth says the CEFC has not yet had to provide additional capital beyond its original commitments, even for the biggest to be built so far, Project EnergyConnect that will link South Australia and NSW.

“Once Transgrid got into the process of building (PEC), costs have blown out,” Learmonth says. “We haven't provided additional capital there. That's been met by Transgrid.

“There's a … variety of responses depending upon when those increased costs come about. But look, there's no question that (inflation) has had a significant impact on renewables as well as transmission over the last few years.”

One interesting aspect of the latest year was the leverage that the CEFC managed to obtain through its finance, a total of $25.9 billion. Since its creation more than a decade ago, the CEFC has made lifetime commitments of $18.3 billion and says that has helped drive $85.3 billion in commitments to clean energy projects.

Other highlights cited by Learmonth include $305 million to unlock $610 million in green loans through the Household Energy Upgrades Fund and $93 million to unlock more than $404 million for climate tech innovators in the Powering Australia Technology Fund (PATF).

This included a $25 million investment in green retailer, Energy Locals, to bring solar panels, battery systems, heat pumps and electric vehicle chargers to Australians living in apartments and aged care centres, as well as commercial sites.

You can listen to the full interview with CEFC CEO Ian Learmonth in the Energy Insiders podcast which will be published on Monday. You can find the full archive here.