ARENA puts A$6.77 million into Clutch's PowerNet battery pilot line

Clutch Industries, a Melbourne clutch maker operating since 1951, will get A$6.77 million from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) toward a A$19.35 million project to build a pilot manufacturing line for PowerNet, a 20 kg, 4 kWh portable battery pack, ministers announced on October 30, 2026. The line goes into Clutch's site in Coburg North, Victoria, and the project is expected to create at least 16 ongoing skilled jobs.

PowerNet is pitched as a battery that changes jobs. Per the release, a unit "can operate independently or be combined with multiple units to create a home battery system," and units can be detached and used as portable power sources. ARENA's project page lists household energy storage, mobile power, marine and recreational vehicles, industrial and mining equipment, off-grid power and light electric mobility among the potential uses.

The solid-state label comes from Clutch and ARENA, not the ministers, whose release calls it "an emerging battery technology." It is an assembly line: ARENA says it "will assemble pre-conditioned solid-state battery cells into complete PowerNet systems incorporating battery management, power electronics, mechanical protection and integrated energy interfaces." ARENA lists six project partners: Senhang New Energy Technology, Victron Energy, GPC Asia Pacific, Bunnings, the University of Melbourne and Salic Shenzhen. The money comes through ARENA's Battery Breakthrough Initiative, and the project runs from September 8, 2026 to December 13, 2029.

The grant lands a day after Clutch launched Density Batteries, its new energy division, built on what Clutch calls X-SSB, "an application-variable solid-state battery architecture." Its first products are the 99 Wh PowerHub Nano and the 2.8 kWh PowerHub Pro, and the Nano is sold at Repco and Bunnings, the second of which also sits on the ARENA project's partner list. Clutch says Deakin University's Battery Research and Innovation Hub has independently tested its cells, and that additional products are planned for 2027.

Neither the ministers nor ARENA put an output figure on the Coburg North line. Saft's solid-state lines in Bordeaux, opened on October 19, 2026, also arrived without one (our coverage).