Vast Renewables Limited announced it has executed key engineering contracts with Afry, FYFE, Primero and Worley to complete Front-End Engineering Design (FEED) on its VS1 project. VS1 is a 30MW /288 MWh CSP plant to be located in Port Augusta, South Australia. Utilising Vast's proprietary modular tower CSP v3.0 technology, VS1 will generate clean, low-cost, dispatchable power with over 8 hours of thermal energy storage.

The project is anticipated to create dozens of green manufacturing jobs, hundreds of jobs during construction and long-term plant operations roles. Vast?s proprietary CSP v3.0 technology has received significant support from the Australian Government, including the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), announcing it has approved up to AUD 65 million in funding to support the construction of VS1. VS1 will be co-located with Solar Methanol 1 (SM1), a world-first green methanol demonstration plant.

In February, Vast, along with its consortium partner, announced that they signed funding agreements to receive AUD 19.48 million and EUR 13.2 million from a collaboration between the Australian and German governments, respectively. SM1 will use zero-emissions dispatchable electricity and heat from VS1 to produce green methanol for use as a sustainable shipping fuel.