Vast Renewables to access $30 million ARENA grant

Vast Renewables has signed a funding agreement to access up to $30 million of its existing $65 million grant from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) to progress its concentrated solar thermal power (CSTP) projects in Australia and internationally.

Vast’ manufactures equipment at its Queensland facility, with ARENA’s funding to see the NASDAQ-listed company scale up its local green technology manufacturing to supply its 30MW power Vast Solar 1 (VS1) power plant now in Front-End Engineering Design (FEED) stage at Port Augusta in South Australia.

Construction of VS1 which is also supported by EUR13.2 million from the German government, is anticipated to begin in Q2 2025, with capital expenditures estimated to be in the range of $360 million – $390 million.

The plant, capable of supplying eight hours of electricity, is being built to power Vast’s Solar Methanol 1 (SM1) green methanol production facility, also at Port Augusta.

Vast CEO Craig Wood said: “Unlocking this funding helps accelerate our Australian green technology manufacturing and the final stages of development for our first utility-scale project.

“ARENA’s backing has been pivotal, getting us to a point where we are garnering significant interest from investors, industry and international governments.

“With the continued support of the Australian government and our investors, we are looking forward to building our next projects”

Vast’s Australian projects and manufacturing facility are anticipated to create dozens of green manufacturing and construction jobs, and long-term plant operations roles.

Proven at its grid-connected pilot project in New South Wales (pictured), Vast’s CSP v3.0 approach utilises a proprietary, modular sodium loop to efficiently capture and convert solar heat into these end products.

Further reading:
Vast begins engineering design of concentrated solar power plant
Engineering contracts awarded for Vast solar methanol plant

Picture: Vast Renewables/Vast’s 1.1MW demonstration project in Forbes, New South Wales