Vast Renewables Limited, a company specializing in concentrated solar thermal power (CSP) energy systems that generate zero-carbon, utility-scale electricity and industrial process heat, announced funding agreements of up to ~AUD $40 million for its solar methanol plant, SM1, in partnership with Mabanaft. The funding, including support from Australian and German governments, aims to advance green …
Australia’s first concentrated solar power plant edges closer to reality
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 – …
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Vast Solar gains partner for solar methanol export
Vast Solar has executed a letter of intent (LOI) with German energy company Mabanaft GmbH & Co. KG for potential offtake and equity investment in Solar Methanol 1 (SM1), Vast’s world-first green methanol demonstration plant. Vast is a concentrated solar power (CSP) technology and project developer, which boasts technology to generate green, dispatchable utility-scale electricity …
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Vast Solar Becomes Vast
Australian renewable energy company Vast is proud to announce its rebrand, effective from 8th May. The new brand identity is expected to better communicate Vast’s position in the market and improve its visibility among stakeholders. Vast’s target markets have broadened from initially focusing on dispatchable renewable electricity to now include process heat for industrial uses, …
Vast Solar: A Concentrated Solar Power Breakthrough for Utilities of the Future
IEA forecasts deployment of up to 430GW of new Concentrated Solar Power capacity globally by 2050 for on-grid applications alone. Vast Solar going public via a merger with Nabors Energy Transition Corp. (NYSE: NETC). NETC is the only SPAC focused on energy transition with a major corporate backer. Vast Solar uses a next-generation technology that …
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Batteries won’t cut it – we need concentrated solar power technology to get us through the night
Australia’s transition to renewables is gathering speed, but there’s a looming problem with storage. We will need much more long-duration storage to get us through the night, once coal and fossil gas exit the system. We also need to find new and better ways to create heat for industrial processes. Renewables can supply much of …
Concentrated solar power is an old technology making a comeback. Here’s how it works
There was a time, not long ago, when the future of electricity generation looked something like the opening scene of Blade Runner 2049, with endless arrays of mirrors in concentric circles. Concentrated solar power (CSP) uses mirrors to focus heat from the Sun to drive a steam turbine and generate electricity. While CSP was once …
Vast Solar’s fix for tank leaks that stymied the first Tower Concentrated Solar Power
A thermal storage tank failure ended Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) development in the US. At the world’s first utility-scale Tower CSP project with storage, the molten salt thermal energy storage tank sprang a leak. SolarReserve’s Crescent Dunes 110 MW project was the only Tower CSP with thermal energy storage among the first five commercial CSP …
One step closer towards Australia’s first commercial scale concentrated solar power plant
On behalf of the Australian Government, the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) has announced it has approved $65 million in funding to Vast Solar to construct VS1, a first-of-a-kind 30 MW / 288 MWh concentrated solar power (CSP) plant in Port Augusta, South Australia. ARENA’s funding for VS1 is conditional upon the project reaching financial …
Renewable energy storage must expand massively and diversify if Australia is to achieve net zero by 2050
Renewable energy storage must undergo massive growth if Australia is to achieve net zero by 2050. A new report from the CSIRO and supported by ARENA funding, says between 10 to 14 times more storage could be needed in the coming decades to support the National Electricity Market (NEM). The Renewable Energy Storage Roadmap forecasts …