Vast begins engineering design of concentrated solar power plant

Vast Renewables has executed engineering contracts to complete Front-End Engineering Design (FEED) on its VS1 Concentrated Solar Thermal Power Plant (CSP) project.

The New York listed company executed key engineering contracts with Afry, FYFE, Primero and Worley to complete FEED on the Construction of 288 MWh CSP power plant to be built at Port Augusta, South Australia.

The project, backed by $65 million from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), will utilise Vast’s proprietary modular tower CSP v3.0 technology to generate clean, low-cost, dispatchable power with over eight hours of thermal energy storage.

VS1 will be co-located with Solar Methanol 1 (SM1), a world-first green methanol demonstration plant backed by $19.48 million from the Australian government and EUR13.2 million from the German government.

The methanol produced is destined to be used as a suatainable shipping fuel.

CEO of Vast said Craig Wood said: “This is a major step forward for Vast and VS1, putting this historic CSP project on the path to construction.

“Afry, FYFE, Primero and Worley will bring the right combination of global and local expertise to VS1, which will utilise our industry-leading technology to capture and store the sun’s energy during the day before generating heat and dispatchable power during the day or night.”

The project is anticipated to create dozens of green manufacturing jobs and hundreds of jobs during construction and long-term plant operations roles.

The announcement comes a year after Vast contracted Worley’s specialist consulting division, Worley Consulting, to complete VS1 basic engineering.

FEED is expected to be completed by August ahead of a Final Investment Decision in Q3 2024 and construction starting in late 2024.

Further reading:
Vast Solar’s concentrated solar go ahead follows solar methanol plant
Vast Solar builds on success to list on NYSE

Image: Vast Solar/VS1