Contractors required for NW power project

A MAJOR new energy project set to electrify the northwest is searching for contractors to help make the vision a reality.

The project will generate 50 megawatts of cleaner, cheaper energy in what could be Australia’s largest hybrid generator.

Vast Solar and the stateowned power company Stanwell are searching for a range of contractors to take on the North West Queensland Hybrid Power Project.

CEO Craig Wood said the project needed contractors across a range of workstreams.

“Building the plant will require collaboration between local, regional and national experts from a range of fields, and will involve hundreds of workers from Mount Isa and the surrounding area,” Mr Wood said.

“Vast Solar has been engaging local contractors to deliver various services at the proposed project site since July 2020, and we look forward to continuing our commitment to providing local employment opportunities.”

Mr Wood said because Mount Isa was so well set up with sophisticated contractors, there was already a workforce base in the regional city.

“The technologies, in particular the concentrated solar thermal piece, which provides nearly half of the energy across the overnight periods, that technology does need to be manufactured really quite close to site,” Mr Wood said.

“The plan is we will construct a manufacturing line in the middle of our facility, located about 10km west of town. That facility will actually produce the mirrors that we use to concentrate the light and capture that energy.”

There is expected to be ongoing work at the new project with some of the workforce expected to transition from coal-based power to the steam turbine in the middle of the facility.

“In the middle of the concentrated solar thermal site, we have a steam turbine. There is a need to have highly skilled operators at that power station for the life of the asset.

“So, the nice thing about our proposed development is we offer a transition path for steam turbine operators. The guys that run the coal-fired power stations, we offer a transition path for those guys to stay in the power industry but to redeploy the skills they have.”

Energy, Renewables and Hydrogen Minister Mick de Brenni said the project would help electrify the resource sector with dispatchable low-cost, reliable clean energy. The feasibility study is expected to be complete in late 2021 with the plant expecting to generate energy from 2023.