RPT_Ausra to open first U.S. solar manufacturing plant
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LOS ANGELES, Dec 13 (Reuters) - Solar thermal power developer Ausra announced on Thursday that it will open a manufacturing plant for components of its systems in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Ausra, started in Australia and now based in Palo Alto, California, says it is the first U.S. manufacturing plant for components in the burgeoning solar thermal industry.
Ausra is one of a handful of developers of the U.S. solar thermal industry which is currently centered in the West, particularly Nevada and California. It is there that the best and brightest sunlight is available for the solar thermal plants, which its advocates say will within just a few years produce renewable power on a scale of large conventional natural gas- and coal-fired units without carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.
The plant will be capable upon opening next April of making up to 200 megawatts of solar collectors each month. The plant will employ 50 people, said John O'Donnell, Ausra executive vice president.
"We're investing ahead of the demand," said O'Donnell. "We see the market for solar thermal power about to explode."
Ausra in November announced plans to build a 177-megawatt solar farm in central California for PG&E Corp (PCG.N).
Solar thermal power uses more conventional mirrored glass than does solar photovoltaic panels photovoltaic panels. Ausra's system uses an array of mirrors to focus the sun's light on a tube above the reflecting glass to heat water to steam which in turn moves turbines to make electricity.
Steam can also be stored, which allows Ausra's solar plants to produce power when the sun is not shining.
The solar farm will have an array of mirrors spread over one square mile -- 640 acres. Ausra plans to build plants of 300 to 500 megawatts in the next five years.
"We committed at the Clinton Global Initiative to build 1,000 megawatts within five years," O'Donnell said.
O'Donnell and Ausra CEO Bob Fishman have said that within several years, it will be able to produce power as cheaply as coal-fired power plants.
Ausra is renovating an existing Las Vegas warehouse and will have a robotic assembly line to make the special glass reflectors and another to coat the tubes that will be used to convert water to steam, said O'Donnell.
The plant will be located near interstate highways and the McCarran International Airport.
Ausra said it will hire about 50 people to staff the plant.
Privately held Ausra is funded by venture capitalists Khosla Ventures and Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers. (Editing by Christian Wiessner)
