Vast Solar picks Mount Isa for thermal clean energy project
Queensland’s Mount Isa selected for a $600m dispatchable energy project tapping its solar thermal technology backed up by batteries and gas.
Renewables operator Vast Solar, backed by agriculture billionaire John Kahlbetzer, has selected Queensland’s Mount Isa for a $600m dispatchable energy project tapping its solar thermal technology backed up by batteries and gas.
The privately owned power operator, which has been running a pilot solar thermal electricity plant near Forbes, NSW, plans to develop a 50 megawatt facility able to run for 30 years by deploying its own technology that uses mirrors and receiving towers to gather and store the sun’s energy.
The project will produce 85 per cent clean energy and is able to provide baseload power to users amid expectations it will sign power purchase agreements with major industrial users.
“The requirements that the customers have up there is actually for firm power, so in addition to concentrated solar thermal power and solar PV we’ve also included a battery to smooth output on cloudy days. We’ll also have a 50MW bank of gas engines that provide firm energy for solar generators,” Vast Solar chief executive Craig Wood said.
“We end up with power that is cheaper than what customers in Mount Isa are currently paying, it’s baseload and it’s clean with gas only providing 15 per cent.”
Vast Solar, majority-owned by rich-list businessman Mr Kahlbetzer, expects to raise funds in the first half of next year.
“We will need to raise capital to put into the project once it gets to financial close, but that’s not expected to happen until the first or second quarter of next year,” Mr Wood said. “We’re talking to a number of potential partners already on the equity side and if they raise a bigger cheque I’ll need to raise less. An integrated hybrid power station that delivers clean, cheap baseload solar energy is of substantial interest to a number of investors all around the world.”
While renewable energy investment has taken a hit in the latter part of last year and now from COVID-19 economic ructions, a new clean energy strategy from the Climate Council to be released on Tuesday shows 76,000 jobs can be created over the next three years.
The study estimates up to 15,000 jobs could be created in large-scale renewable energy, including solar and wind farms, upgrading transmission infrastructure and adding utility-scale batteries while 12,000 jobs could be created in ecosystem restoration including 5000 in Queensland, according to economic modelling from consultancy AlphaBeta, which is an arm of Accenture.
“The job creation could start immediately and continue over three years. Federal, state and territory governments all have the opportunity to put these measures in train,” AlphaBeta director Andrew Charlton said.
Regional Australia would get a boost from the Climate Council’s Clean Jobs Plan with in excess of 40 per cent of the job opportunities identified located in regional parts of the nation.