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 in the cleantech and solar sectors. At the same time, it solidifies the Mountain View, Calif. company’s role as a supplier, and not a builder of plants itself.
Ausra is one… 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 year, reports the Wall Street Journal.
This is not the first time Sempra has worked with First Solar. It also tapped the Tempe, Ariz. company to construct its 10 megawatt solar… 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 old New York factory into a manufacturing facility, reports VentureWire.
The company acquired the 6.5-acre site for $3.75 million. Based in Highland, N.Y., it includes 93,000 square feet of plant space,… 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 are able to afford upgrades like rooftop solar panels, reports the San Jose Mercury News. The frozen credit market has only made matters worse, stalling capital projects — like utility-scale… 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 equity. Now it’s licensing its technology to Indian power company Acme Group, which will use it to build solar-thermal plants in India capable of producing 1,000 megawatts. In exchange, Acme… 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 also placing more emphasis on selling its technology and equipment assets to utilities and related companies.
For most of 2008, Ausra was working on solar plants costing up to $1 billion,… 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 southward in central California, where it will generate enough electricity at peak hours to power 3,500 homes.
The new plant is being lauded as the first solar thermal installation to begin… 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 thermal company Ausra.
Ausra is one of several large, heavily funded startups that use arrays of mirrors to concentrate sunlight on a central receiver containing water, which quickly reaches the boiling… 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 the world being flat — people finally figured it out: The manufacturing jobs were gone. Get a job banking, or flipping burgers, but don’t expect to be building cars or… 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, based in Alberta, Canada, also joined the round.
The company plans on raising more money — enough to bring its total closer to $50 million, according to Earth2Tech — during the… 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 water, the steam of which is harnessed to generate electricity.
This third round was led by Google.org, VantagePoint Venture Partners, BP Alternative Energy, Statoil Hydro Venture and Black River; returning investors… 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 company has taken on $30 million more in venture debt and is looking for a $15 million follow-up from prior investors Khosla Ventures and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, according… 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 service, raises $6.5M
8. Top 10 Seattle-area tech stories of the year
9. Miasole reportedly lays off 40 workers
10. Ausra’s proposed 177MW plant is approved
Funny or Die raises $15M, despite strong chance… 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 facility that it says will churn out enough solar collectors each year to produce 700 megawatts of energy. And the construction’s not moving slowly: Ausra plans to have the 130,000… 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 Obispo county.
The idea behind solar thermal power is focusing mirrors on contained water, which then turns to steam that can drive turbines. We last reported on Ausra two months ago,… 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 has applied for a permit to produce a record 175 megawatt plant, its Oakland Calif. competitor, BrightSource, stole some of the thunder late last week by saying it has applied… 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 Fund joined previous investor VantagePoint Venture Partners in a round of “under $50 million.” VentureBeat first covered the company, formerly known as Luz II, here.
Bright Source is significant because it… Continue Reading