Australia’s first commercial concentrated solar thermal (CST) heat plant will be built in Victoria at the Mars Petcare facility in Wodonga.
The $39 million project will be backed by more than $17 million in funding from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), the new CST heat plant will have capacity of 18MW and boast up to 10 hours of thermal storage.
The CST project will help to reduce 50 per cent of the Mars Petcare facility’s gas use – equivalent to the average annual gas use of over 2,000 households – and will support around 80 jobs during construction, which is expected to get underway almost immediately.
“Our regions have powered the Australian economy for decades and will continue to do so in a net zero world, with a future made in Australia,” said Chris Bowen, Australia’s federal minister for climate change and energy.
“This is a great demonstration of the potential for renewable technologies like Concentrated Solar Thermal to drive decarbonisation and create regional Australian jobs.
The project is expected to begin operations in 2026 and will use technology provided by Germany’s Solarlite and Belgium-based Azteq.