SINGAPORE – HyFuel Solar Refinery Pty Ltd, a subsidiary of Australian clean energy company Vast Renewables Limited (Vast) (NASDAQ: VSTE), today announced it has secured AUD$700,000 in grant funding through the Australia-Singapore Low Emissions Technology (ASLET) Initiative to decarbonise the maritime and port operations sector. These funds will be used to progress the development of the South Australia Solar Fuels (SA Solar Fuels) project, a world-first sustainable fuels project being progressed through a collaboration between Vast and global energy company Mabanaft.

The SA Solar Fuels project, previously known as Solar Methanol 1 or SM1, is being developed to meet the surging demand for sustainable fuels in the maritime and aviation industries, which urgently require fuel decarbonisation pathways to achieve net-zero targets.

The SA Solar Fuels demonstration plant is planned to have a production capacity of 7,500 tonnes per annum of green methanol, enough to power a number of car ferries or coastal shipping for bulk freight within Australia for sustainable tourism. The innovative technology showcased by SA Solar Fuels has the potential to produce hydrogen-based sustainable fuels capable of replacing fossil fuels in logistics operations, offering a low-carbon alternative for ships, aircraft, or other industrial applications.

The pre-Front-End Engineering Design (pre-FEED) for SA Solar Fuels has been completed by global engineering firms Fichtner and bse Methanol. The support from ASLET will underpin additional project optimisation work prior to commencing FEED, which will address the technical, infrastructure, regulatory, and commercial readiness elements of the project to ensure the successful introduction of green methanol in maritime operations.

Aimed at helping the maritime and port operations industry transition towards a net-zero emissions future and delivering economic benefits to both countries, ASLET is jointly administered by Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore, and is supported by the Australian and Singaporean Governments.

Vast CEO Craig Wood said, “We are delighted to receive this support from ASLET, recognising the potential of our project to play a crucial role in decarbonising global fuel production. We believe SA Solar Fuels offers a scalable solution to produce green fuels at a cost that is competitive with renewable energy-based alternatives. We look forward to progressing to the FEED stage with our partner Mabanaft and advancing our global pipeline of green fuel projects.”

This ASLET funding is the latest support for the SA Solar Fuels project, following the announcement in January 2023 that Vast would be conditionally awarded up to AUD$19.48 million from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) and Mabanaft would be conditionally awarded up to EUR12.4 million from Projektträger Jülich (PtJ) on behalf of the German Government, as part of the German-Australian Hydrogen Innovation and Technology Incubator (HyGATE).

To be located at the Port Augusta Green Energy Hub, SA Solar Fuels will be powered by Vast’s next-generation concentrated solar thermal power technology, which is expected to provide the lowest-cost source of energy for green fuel production thanks to its ability to deliver continuous heat and power. The project’s primary CO2 offtake partner, Calix, will supply unavoidable industrial CO2 emissions from its co-located world-first carbon capture and utilisation demonstration plant. This CO2 will be synthesised with green hydrogen to create sustainable fuels.

About Vast:

Vast is a renewable energy company headquartered in Australia, developing clean energy solutions to provide dispatchable, low-cost clean heat and power for grid decarbonisation, green fuel production for the transportation industry, and to help heavy industry reduce emissions. Vast’s next-generation CSP v3.0 approach utilises its proprietary modular sodium loop to efficiently capture and convert solar energy.

For more information, please visit www.vast.energy.

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