Ausra To Open First US Solar Thermal Power Manufacturing Plant in Nevada

December 14, 2007 – Vol. 12 No.38

Ausra To Open First US Solar Thermal Power Manufacturing Plant in Nevada.

The developer of utility-scale solar thermal power, is building a 130,000-square-foot facility in Las Vegas. The plant will be capable of making over 700 megawatts (electric) of solar collectors per year. The highly automated manufacturing and distribution center will produce the reflectors, towers, absorber tubes, and other key components of the company’s solar thermal power plants. The plant will begin regular operation in April 2008.

“Ausra can fill four square miles with solar collectors every year from this one factory, enough to provide market-priced zero-pollution power to 500,000 homes. Americans want clean power, and are tired of the market fluctuations, price increases, and pollution from fossil power plants. With market-priced solar power, we are entering the Solar Decade, in which massive construction of solar plants will take place. We are investing now in the systems and capacity to serve that need,” said Bob Fishman, president and CEO of Ausra.

Ausra’s Compact Linear Fresnel Reflector (CLFR) solar technology utilizes the heat from the sun’s rays to create steam. Solar collectors boil water at high temperature to power steam turbine generators, in much the same way as traditional fossil-fuel power plants, but without use of fuels or emissions.

Ausra’s innovations in mirror systems have brought the price of solar power down to the level of gas-fired power today, and will soon reach prices associated with coal-fired generation. Solar thermal power plants can store energy as heat to continue power generation at night and during cloudy periods., according to the company.

In November 2007, Ausra and California utility PG&E announced a power purchase agreement for a one-square-mile, 177-megawatt power plant, enough to power over 120,000 homes, to be built in central California

Ausra, Inc., headquartered in Palo Alto, California, is a privately held company funded by Khosla Ventures and Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers. (12/13/07)

Links:

Ausra
http://www.ausra.com