ARENA has approved $65 million funding for Vast Solar’s VS1 30MW/288MWh reference plant in Port Augusta, South Australia.
The funding is another step forward for the project, which will create hundreds of jobs and be the catalyst for an Australian concentrated solar thermal power (CSP) industry.
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VS1 is the first utility-scale CSP plant that will deploy the company’s world-leading technology. The technology generates clean, low-cost, dispatchable power by capturing and storing the sun’s energy during the day to be used to generate heat and power, including at night. It has received international awards thanks to its modular design and pioneering use of sodium as the heat transfer fluid, providing higher efficiency and reliability.
VS1 will help anchor Vast Solar’s green technology manufacturing activities in Australia, with the potential to create a billion-dollar CSP export industry. The project will create dozens of green manufacturing jobs, hundreds of jobs during construction and long-term plant operations roles. Vast Solar’s CSP uses turbines similar to those found in coal and gas power plants to generate electricity, and the project will provide opportunities for skilled workers displaced by the closure of fossil-fired power plants.
Vast Solar is currently working with state and federal governments to identify the site of its first full-scale manufacturing facility, which will produce Vast Solar’s Australian designed and made CSP technology.
Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen said Vast Solar’s home-grown concentrated solar power technology could be a game changer for Australia and the world.
“The scale of the energy transformation underway is massive—it’s great to see an Australian company developing breakthrough technology to create jobs and clean, reliable and affordable power in the regions,” Minister Bowen said.
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“Making this technology commercially viable on a larger scale could go a long way to meeting the growing need for dispatchable renewable energy, energy security and longer duration storage.
“Vast Solar is globally recognised as a leader in this technology that will help support our goal of getting the nation’s electricity grid to 82% renewables by 2030.”
