A few articles about Ausra, the newly flush solar thermal systems developer, caught my attention this morning. The omnipresent Vinod Khosla appears to have his hand in yet another interesting cleantech startup.
From the Clean Break article:
“It’s probably the most exciting time in my career,” Dr. David Mills, 60, told Tyler Hamilton. “Better late than never.” After years of trying to attract serious interest in his technology in Australia, Mills says he was getting ready to throw in the towel and retire. Then, last fall, he got an offer to go meet Vinod Khosla, followed by the folks at Kleiner Perkins, in October. “We clicked really well,” recalls Mills. By February, Ausra got its first funding and by March the company relocated its headquarters to California and started hiring like crazy…
…Ausra aims to offer an emission-free replacement to coal-fired electricity in the United States (California, Texas, Florida, etc..), China and other suitable geographies. Rather than using solar PV, the company uses its own low-cost solar concentrating technology to create steam from water that generates electricity after it passes through high-efficiency turbines. “We are currently building a 30 MW power plant, and are in the process of scaling up to 2,000 MW over the next three years — enough power for two million homes,” the company states in a new job listing on Craigslist.
