Ecotality Life

Photovoltaic (PV) solar power – in which sunlight interacts directly with silicon or other materials to generate electricity – is the type of solar power that has been all over the news of late. Solar cells. Thin-films. Building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV). All are buzz words referring to PV solar.

Well, PV solar has a sibling – a big sibling, in fact — solar thermal. Solar thermal does indeed use the sun and mirrors to generate “big” — utility-scale — power. The significance of utility-scale solar thermal can be summed up by this fact: worldwide, the electric power industry creates 40 percent of total carbon emissions — and electricty use is rapidly growing.

Seems the solar siblings have much in common with many human siblings: the youngest likes to have everyone’s attention.  But it’s time to move over little PV — big thermal’s day in the sun has arrived.

Ausra, Inc., a company that builds solar thermal plants, recently (mid-September) received more than $40 million in funding from two top Silicon Valley venture capital (VC) firms, Khosla Ventures and Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers (KPCB). Vinod Khosla was one of the co-founders of Sun Microsystems (Nasdaq: JAVA), a major computer networking company. Seems Mr. Khosla has a “sun” theme going.

Solar thermal reportedly has two significant advantages over PV solar for large-scale power generation:

1. Cost – Ausra’s technology is reportedly competitive with fossil-fired power NOW (if demonstrated to be true, this technology will be HUGE)
2. Power storage capability – it doesn’t have to be sunny for power to be generated

Although Ausra is a newly-formed Palo Alta, CA-based company, it shouldn’t be confused with a typical start-up. The company, which was based in Australia until last year, has been around since 2002. Its roots go back to the early 1990s when founder David Mills, while at Sydney University, conceived its core technology. Big VC money and an Australian government not committed to solar thermal are reportedly the reasons Mills & Co. agreed to relocate to the U.S. and form a new entity.

The basic process works as follows:

• Heat from the sun is concentrated (usually using mirrors)
• The concentrated heat boils water in pipes generating high-pressure steam
• Steam drives the conventional turbines
• Turbines generate electricity   

The solar siblings each has its own distinct advantages so sibling rivalry should be kept to a minimum. From Ausra’s website:

“PV solar has advantages of unattended operation and small-scale feasibility, but remains significantly more expensive as a source of large-scale power than solar thermal technologies.”

Ausra is privately-owned, so individual investors can’t invest in this company. Not yet at least.

However, there is a way to play the solar thermal investment card NOW. One could invest in the utilities that are first- or early-movers in buying solar thermal.

According to a Cleantech article, on September 28, Ausra, California utility PG&E (NYSE: PCG) and Florida utility FPL Group (NYSE: FPL) committed at the Clinton Global Initiative — Bill Clinton’s annual philanthropic meeting — to building or buying at least 1,500 megawatts of solar thermal in the U.S. over the next five years. The total cost of the commitments could reach $4.5 billion. Full article click here.

Ausra is on Business Week’s radar as well. Wrote this post and soon thereafter came upon an article — not used to write this post or referenced — in BW dated October 15, 2007. Since it’s only the 13th, suppose the article was just published on the web, but may appear in the coming week’s printed version? Just a guess. Click here for article.

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