Concentrated solar thermal (CST) specialist Vast Renewables has signed an updated agreement to access up to $30 million (USD 19.4 million) of a $65 million funding deal with the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) announced in early 2023.
The funding will support Vast’s ambitions to scale up manufacturing capacity for its “next generation” solar thermal technology at its Queensland facility and advance plans to build what it says will be Australia’s first large-scale concentrated solar thermal (CST) project.
Vast is planning to build a 30 MW / 288 MWh CST plant near Port Augusta in South Australia.
The proposed VS1 project seeks to demonstrate the technical and operational performance of Vast’s modular CST technology at utility scale, with the 30 MW plant to generate more than eight hours of thermal energy storage. The project will help to power a co-located green methanol production facility.
Vast Chief Executive Officer Craig Wood said the first tranche of ARENA funding will help finance the final project development activities ahead of a final investment decision on VS1 expected in early 2025. Construction is anticipated to begin in Q2 2025.
“Unlocking this funding helps accelerate our Australian green technology manufacturing and the final stages of development for our first utility-scale project,” he said.
“ARENA’s backing has been pivotal, getting us to a point where we are garnering significant interest from investors, industry and international governments keen to explore how our technology can play a key role in decarbonising hard-to-abate sectors including electricity, industry and fuels.”
Vast’s CST technology utilises mirrors to concentrate and capture heat from the sun in solar receivers, with high temperature heat transferred via liquid sodium and stored in molten salt. The stored energy can then be used to heat water to create steam to drive a turbine and produce electricity, or the heat can also be used directly to decarbonise some industrial processes.
The Sydney-based developer said the technology’s dispatchable capacity will be “a critical complement to intermittent solar PV and wind in Australia’s energy mix, delivering longer-lasting power that’s cost effective when the sun isn’t shining and the wind isn’t blowing.”
Vast’s announcement followed news that the CSIRO had raised $15 million in seed funding to commercialise its own CST technology.
The new venture, FPR Energy, plans to develop a 50 MW demonstration plant with up to 16 hours of integrated thermal energy storage to prove the commercial viability of the particle-based technology.
