teaming up

Australian renewable energy company taps Houston partner for first US project

GGS Energy and Vast Renewables Limited announced their agreement to work together on Project Bravo, Vast’s first deployment in the U.S. Photo via vast.energy

Houston-based project developer focused on energy transition has signed a new agreement to work on a synthetic fuels project in the Southwest United States.

GGS Energy and Australian company, Vast Renewables Limited, a renewable energy company specializing in concentrated solar thermal power systems, announced their agreement to work together on Project Bravo, Vast’s first deployment in the U.S. The company's CSP v3.0 technology will be deployed to create carbon-free heat and electricity for a co-located refinery that will generate green methanol and/or electrically powered sustainable aviation fuel, or e-SAF.

“CSP has the potential to unlock low-cost green fuel production in the U.S., and it can play a significant role in helping decarbonise shipping and aviation," Craig Wood, CEO of Vast, says in a news release. "We are delighted to have GGS Energy as a development partner to advance our plans in the U.S., which is a key market for Vast’s technology.”

Vast is currently building Solar Methanol 1, a CSP-powered green methanol reference plant that will be located in Australia at the Port Augusta Green Energy Hub. Project Bravo will build upon that plant here in the U.S. The location is still to be decided but will be in the Southwestern part of the country.

GGS Energy, which is founded in 2020 as a subsidiary of Glacier Global Partners that was formed in 2020, has infrastructure development experience across technologies, including utility scale CSP, coal-to-liquids projects, PV solar, wind, and more.

“GGS Energy is excited to partner with Vast and work to develop Project Bravo," Tommy Soriero from GGS Energy says in the release. "This collaboration marks a significant step toward a sustainable future, harnessing advanced technology to produce low-cost green fuels. We are eager to combine our expertise and resources to ensure the success and impact of future innovative projects starting with Project Bravo.”

Trending News

A View From HETI

A new joint venture will work on four projects supplying 5 gigawatts of power from combined-cycle power plants for the ERCOT and PJM Interconnection grids. Photo via Getty Images.

Houston-based power provider NRG Energy Inc. has formed a joint venture with two other companies to meet escalating demand for electricity to fuel the rise of data centers and the evolution of generative AI.

NRG’s partners in the joint venture are GE Vernova, a provider of renewable energy equipment and services, and TIC – The Industrial Co., a subsidiary of construction and engineering company Kiewit.

“The growing demand for electricity in part due to GenAI and the buildup of data centers means we need to form new, innovative partnerships to quickly increase America’s dispatchable generation,” Robert Gaudette, head of NRG Business and Wholesale Operations, said in a news release. “Working together, these three industry leaders are committed to executing with speed and excellence to meet our customers’ generation needs.”

Initially, the joint venture will work on four projects supplying 5 gigawatts of power from combined-cycle power plants, which uses a combination of natural gas and steam turbines that produce additional electricity from natural gas waste. Electricity from these projects will be produced for power grids operated by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) and PJM Interconnection. The projects are scheduled to come online from 2029 through 2032.

The joint venture says the model it’s developing for these four projects is “replicable and scalable,” with the potential for expansion across the U.S.

The company is also developing a new 721-megawatt natural gas combined-cycle unit at its Cedar Bayou plant in Baytown, Texas. Read more here.

Trending News