Australia’s first solar thermal plant edges closer to reality as engineers named

Plans to build a concentrated solar power project in South Australia have edged closer to a final investment decision by the end of the year, with developer Vast Solar signing up Worley as an engineering partner on the “first-of-its-kind” project.

Vast said on Monday that construction of the 30MW/288MWh CSP plant in Port Augusta – known as VS1 – is on track to begin in 2024, with Worley’s Advisian now appointed to complete basic engineering and front-end engineering design.

VS1 is slated for development on the same piece of land as the ill-fated Aurora project that collapsed several years ago, after US-based SolarReserve was unable to gain enough funds for its 150MW, eight hour plant, despite a $100 million grant promised by the federal government.

Vast also needs to gather up enough funds to meet the anticipated full $203 million cost of the significantly smaller VS1 project, but has had help from ARENA with a $65 million grant announced in February.

Vast has also secured a $40 million pledge from ARENA and Germany for VS1 to supply a proposed solar methanol facility and hydrogen electrolyser alongside VS1 in Port Augusta.

This particular CSP technology, which Vast has demonstrated at a 1.1MW pilot plant in Jemalong in NSW, differs from others by using modular arrays of solar towers and receivers to capture and store energy from the sun and use it provide electricity of heat.

Dubbed CSP 3.0, following previous parabolic trough and large centralised tower technologies, the Vast technology uses sodium as a heat transfer fluid and claims to have improved the efficiency of the solar collecting system, reducing capital and operating costs.

The co-located VS1 solar methanol plant – dubbed SM1 – will use the zero emissions dispatchable electricity and heat from VS1 to produce green methanol for use as a sustainable shipping fuel.

Vast CEO Craig Wood says it has experience working with Worley and Advisian, including on the engineering and commissioning of the company’s Jemalong demonstration plant.

“With strong expertise in CSP, Worley and Advisian are the ideal engineering partners for 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,” said Wood.

“Their skill in integrating our technology with major packages to be delivered by key equipment partners from around the world will allow VS1 to progress towards FID late this year.”

Worley’s manager of power and energy transition, Peter Israel, says the work on VS1 aligns with the company’s ambition to be recognised as a global leader in sustainability.