CSP Pilot Plant

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In 2012 Vast Solar commenced its 1.2 MW Performance Validation Project which was supported by funding from the then Australian Solar Institute. This involved a single module of Vast Solar’s low-cost, high-performance concentrating solar thermal (CST) power system – a solar field of 700 mirrors focused on a single tower with a thermal energy receiver.Leveraging private funding raised by Vast Solar from Australian and European investors, ARENA provided funding for Vast Solar to construct a 6MW (th) CST power generation pilot-scale plant comprising five modules and including three hours of thermal energy storage.This project will demonstrate the reliable and safe operation of the system, gather performance and cost data, refine operational controls and maintenance processes to advance the technology towards commercialisation.The project will showcase Vast Solar’s low-cost, high efficiency technology, and support marketing plans for the Vast Solar CST system. The plant will connect to the National Electricity Market using Essential Energy’s West Jemalong Substation.Concentrating solar thermal (CST) power plants harvest the sun’s energy to produce efficient, large-scale solar power generation. A solar array (field of mirrors) reflects the sun’s energy onto a thermal receiver and then to a thermal energy storage system. Energy can be released from storage as required, day and night, to power a traditional steam turbine to generate electricity.CST with storage can provide reliable, dispatchable energy for electricity generation, for electricity network support, and for industrial processes requiring high efficiency steam supply.Vast Solar’s CST design, incorporating energy storage, has strong potential to reduce the cost of solar energy to levels comparable with wind energy (around $100 per megawatt hour), with the added value of reliable dispatch of power as and when needed.Various design strategies are being trialled in the US, Europe and elsewhere to drive down costs for CST systems. However more rapid cost reduction pathways must be demonstrated for CST to become more broadly adopted as a mainstream energy generation technology.

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