Palo Alto-based solar technology developer Ausra Inc. announced it has received more than $40 million in its first round of funding, from two Silicon Valley VC firms, Khosla Ventures and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. The company says it hopes to soon build the largest solar thermal plant in the U.S., somewhere in California. The Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal had the details…
The company says its core technology, the compact linear fresnel reflector (CLFR) solar steam generation system, was originally conceived in the early 1990s by founder and chairman David Mills while at Sydney University. Ausra’s power plants drive steam turbines with sunshine. Locally manufactured solar concentrators made of steel and glass focus sunlight to boil water, generating high-pressure steam that drives conventional turbine generators. New thermal energy storage systems using pressurized water and low cost materials will provide for on-demand generation day and night.
Vinod Khosla, founder of Khosla Ventures and Ausra board member, said, “Ausra’s technology replaces smoke with mirrors by eliminating fuel use for power generation, and sets a new benchmark for the cost and scale of solar power.”
Ausra’s website claims that, using Ausra’s current solar technologies, all U.S. electric power, day and night, could be generated using a land area smaller than 92 by 92 miles. Ausra: “The U.S. can be permanently energy independent and eliminate half its greenhouse emissions using a land area smaller than 92×92 miles, without increased electric power prices.”
92×92 miles - how big is that? Well, if you’ve ever driven from the eastern edge to the western edge of the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, that’s about 90 miles. It’s big, but on the other hand, the desert Southwest is huge.
Khosla Ventures and Kleiner Perkins don’t always pick winners, but they have a pretty good track record. I’d mark down Ausra as one to watch.
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[...] Ausra (the non-public company I most wish was public so I could buy stock in it!) is headquartered in Palo Alta, CA and has recently signed several agreements to provide solar thermal power plants to several utilities. The most recent was an agreement to build a 177 MW plant for Pacific Gas & Electric in California. Articles on this site concerning Ausra’s projects are here, here, here, here and here. [...]