Vast Solar appoints engineering firm to concentrated solar power project

Concentrated solar power (CSP) developer Vast Solar today announced it has awarded Australian engineering firm Worley key engineering contracts for its VS1 CSP project being built at Port Augusta in mid-northern South Australia.

VS1 is a 30MW / 288 MWh CSP plant being built in Port Augusta and utilising Vast’s proprietary modular tower CSP v3.0 technology.

The CSP power plant is co-located with Vast Solar and the Solar Methanol Consortium’s world-first green methanol demonstration plant, SM1 also being built in Port Augusta.

In February the two companies were selected to receive $19.48 million (EUR13.2 million) from an Australian-German collaboration fund, HyGATE, to back the SM1 project.

Now Vast has appointed Worley and its specialist consulting division, Advisian, to complete VS1 basic engineering by July 2023, followed by front-end engineering design (FEED) in the balance of this calendar year.

Construction of VS1 is on track to begin in 2024.

Vast CEO Craig Wood said: “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.

“Vast has a long-standing relationship with Worley and Advisian dating back to assistance with the engineering and commissioning of our 1.1MW grid connected Jemalong demonstration plant.

“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.”

Vast’s proprietary CSP v3.0 technology has received $65 million in funding to support construction of VS1 from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA).

The Port Augusta project follows Vast’s 1.1 MW CSP Demonstration Plant which operated in Forbes, NSW for 32 months.

Further reading:
Vast Solar gets Australia and German backing for methanol project
Browse @AuManufacturing’s coverage of Vast Solar here.

Image: Vast Solar