Ausra raises $25.5M for narrowed focus on solar equipment
Ausra, one of the big names in Silicon Valley solar, just brought in $25.5 million to become a primary supplier of solar thermal equipment for utilities and power generation plants. The money couldn’t come at a better time as capital continues to dry up, especially… Continue Reading
Sempra and First Solar join forces for Nevada solar farm
Sempra Energy, the major utility and energy services company in Southern California, announced today that it has contracted First Solar to build a 48-megawatt array of solar panels in the Nevada desert, dubbed Copper Mountain. The facility is expected to start producing electricity within the… Continue Reading
Prism Solar looks to raise ambitious $150M for solar hologram plant
Prism Solar Technologies, maker of concentrating solar film that is said to up the efficiency and cut the cost of solar panel installations, has launched its second round of funding — hoping to bring in at least $150 million to finance the restoration of an… Continue Reading
The economy clouds solar’s skies
For a while, it seemed that the solar power sector would weather the downturn fairly unscathed — but it hasn’t been so lucky, at least in the short run. Not only has venture capital dried up for experimental technology startups, but fewer and fewer homeowners… Continue Reading
eSolar nabs $30M licensing deal for Indian plants
eSolar has been focusing increasingly on building large-scale plants in the U.S., and shedding plans to do the same overseas. Just last week, it announced that it sold its rights to build 500 megawatts worth of solar-thermal plants to NRG Energy for $10 million in… Continue Reading
Ausra lowers sights on solar plants, cuts staff
Solar energy company Ausra announced that it no longer plans to build massive solar thermal plants across the southwest and California desert due to poor economic conditions, shifting its focus to smaller-scale power generation plants. To weather the downturn, the Palo Alto, Calif. firm is… Continue Reading
Ausra’s first solar thermal plant starts up
Solar startup Ausra added a small notch to its belt today, by becoming the first of a new generation of solar thermal companies to open a full-sized electricity generation plant. The Palo Alto, Calif. company cut the ribbon on a 5-megawatt facility about 250 miles… Continue Reading
Ausra picks up $60.6M more to become first solar thermal company on the grid
As badly as the rest of the business world seems to be doing, renewable energy just keeps picking up steam. There has been a string of recent financings going to solar panel makers, financiers that help consumers and businesses buy solar installations, and now solar… Continue Reading
Manufacturing could hit a new upswing in the United States
A few years ago, it was still a subject of regular outrage. Jobs were headed to Mexico. Factories moving to China. Everybody hated globalization, without quite understanding it. But with a flood of news coverage — the slightly nauseating peak being an all-too-popular book about… Continue Reading
Ausra rakes in $24.5M for solar thermal power
A little over a month after opening its first 130,000-square-foot factory in Las Vegas, Palo Alto, Calif.-based Ausra, a developer of utility-level solar thermal power, has raised $24.5 million in a third roundof funding from returning investors Khosla Ventures and KPCB. New investor KERN Partners,… Continue Reading
Google joins in $115M investment into solar thermal company, BrightSource
BrightSource Energy, an Oakland, Calif., solar thermal startup, has landed a hefty $115 million funding round from investors including Google to develop its solar power tower technology.
Solar thermal technology is one the leading hopes for alternative energy. It uses like mirrors and lenses to boil… Continue Reading
Ausra sucks up $30M more in venture debt for solar thermal
Solar thermal startup Ausra has been on a roll over the past few months. Starting with an announcement that it had raised $40 million last September, the company followed up with news of a 177 megawatt project and plans to build a manufacturing facility.
Now the… Continue Reading
Roundup: Funny or Die raises cash, Netsuite soars & much more
1. Funny or Die raises $15M, despite chance of latter
2. Did White House lead rejection of California’s emissions claims?
3. Redhat CEO Matthew Szulik resigns
4. Startup.com’s Tuzman to save Roo.com
5. Netsuite’s stock soars past $35
6. Cisco’s Charles Giancarlo, leaves to Silver Lake Partners
7. Jacked, online sports… Continue Reading
Ausra moves to mass-produce solar thermal
Ausra, the Palo Alto-based solar thermal company that just last month announced plans to build a 177-megawatt solar installation in California, is now in the process of launching a new business arm, mass producing its own flat-mirrored solar collectors.
It’s begun construction on a Las Vegas… Continue Reading
Solar thermal gains steam with Ausra deal
updated
California energy utility PG&E has agreed to buy power from a 177-megawatt solar thermal plant to be built by Silicon Valley company Ausra.
Ausra, of Palo Alto, Calif., is applying for a regulatory permit to build on 640 acres of ranch land in California’s San Luis… Continue Reading
Ausra aims to build biggest solar thermal plant, raises $40M
Ausra, an ambitious Silicon Valley company wanting to build a solar thermal electric power plant double the largest ever built, has raised somewhere north of $40 million in a first round of capital.
However, just as Ausra was preparing to make its announcement Monday that it… Continue Reading
Khosla Ventures invests in solar thermal company, Ausra
Khosla Ventures has invested an undisclosed amount of venture capital into a secretive Palo Alto, Calif. company called Ausra.
The company is developing utility-scale solar thermal projects, according to VentureWire (subscription required)
Khosla Ventures declined comment.
Bright Source raises less than $50M for large solar power plants
Bright Source Energy (no Web site), an Oakland start-up that designs and builds large solar power plants with new technology, has finished its first round of funding with investments from two new investors, VentureWire reports today.
Draper Fisher Jurvetson and the J.P. Morgan Bay Area Equity… Continue Reading