Ausra, a Palo Alto solar power manufacturer & operator dedicated California’s first new solar-thermal power plant in nearly 20 years in went into operation near Bakersfield recently. Hopefully, Ausra’s and its competitor’s future endeavors will continue to receive funding during the continuing & expanding credit crunch. I am certainly expecting a new stimulus package from the incoming administration of Barack Obama that will include the promised $15 per year for alternative energy. PG&E Chairman Peter Darbee & California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger attended Ausra’s pilot plant opening. The small facility will generate 5 MW of electricity, enough for about 3,500 homes. CEO Fishman said that installing PV panels on residential & commercial rooftops is not their business. Ausra uses large concentrating mirrors to reflect sunlight to heat water in tubes, which creates steam that turns a turbine and generates electricity. Ausra’s project is a precursor to a larger $550 million facility, a 177 MW plant to be built in San Luis Obispo County. Pacific Gas & Electric has contracted to buy the electricity from that plant, which is scheduled to go online in 2011. Solar-thermal technology is considered a key component for utilities striving to meet California’s renewable-energy standard of 20% by 2010.

Ausra recently announced $60 million in venture funding from Australian, British, Canadian firms & Silicon Valley venture capital firms Khosla Ventures and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. In June, Ausra opened a factory in Las Vegas to build the parts needed for the new plant. While it still must finance its large-scale San Luis Obispo project, Fishman said planning for subsequent plants already is in progress, including ones in the United States & Australia. The company also is hiring a project director in Europe as it anticipates building plants there.

According to the California Energy Commission, plans for 8 solar-thermal plants that could generate 3,869 MW of electricity are either under review by the state or are expected to be filed in the near future. PG&E has signed power-purchase agreements for 1,700 MW of solar-thermal power from Ausra & its competitors, BrightSource Energy, Solel & Martifer Renewables.