JUL 10

Ausra, a developer of utility-scale solar thermal power, has opened their solar thermal power parts factory in brightly lit Sin City. It is the first of its kind in the US and the highest capacity plant in the world. As if you needed another great reason to visit Las Vegas, right? The factory will produce reflectors, absorber tubes and other components of the company’s solar thermal power plants, and will produce upwards of 700 MW of solar electricity generation equipment each year.

The excitement bubbling around this fairly boring announcement is that the opening of the factory brings us that much closer to large-scale solar thermal electricity generation. The factory triples worldwide manufacturing capacity and will help speed up the industry on the whole. Last year Ausra paired up with California’s PG&E on a power purchase agreement for a 177 MW solar thermal power plant in central California, and this new Nevada-based factory will make the equipment needed for this project and many others.

While the factory employs only 50 workers, according to Ausra’s output rate, they figure they’re creating about 1,400 green collar construction jobs for building solar plants – a much needed job boost in a much needed industry.

Knowing that we’re moving past prototypes into large-scale development of solar thermal electricity generation systems gives me confidence that we’re finally gathering speed in the right direction. Now if the BLM will just get their act together…

Via Ausra

Comments (14)

Subscribe to this comment's feed

BLM is not the problem - it's the tortoi
written by kerry bradshaw, July 10, 2008

Once again the environmentalists have struck - first they are criticizing the BLM for enforcing the environmental imapct studies that will delay most projects for 2 years. Now comes word that the environmentalists will fight any attempt to put solar projects on land inhabited by desert tortoises. This is the ultimate irony!!!! The brainless environmentalsits on the one side and the nearly brainless environmentalists on the other. The tortoise protectors claim they will win just as they did in stiopping nuclear power, which , as you dimwits may remember, lead to widespread use of coal as baseload plants, guaranteeing global warming at the earliest possible moment. Thanks for the global warming , environmentalists. I'm spreading the word. The braindead chickens are coming home to roost. And now they're trying to blame the BLM. This is getting better all the time.

• 
• +1
• 
• 

Nuclear Weapons fan = Kerry
written by Deathridesahorse, July 11, 2008

Kerry, do you love your Nuclear Weapons or what?!?

• 
• +0
• 
• 

IT
written by Scott, July 11, 2008

Its to bad they are building that solar facility on that major fault line.

• 
• +0
• 
• 

Not the 1st by a long shot!
written by John Kerry, July 11, 2008

You need to do a little research before claiming to be the first. This was done back in the 1980's.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power_plants_in_the_Mojave_Desert

• 
• +0
• 
• 

...
written by ryan, July 11, 2008

Who cares if they build it on a fault line? Nobody would die if a bunch of solar panels collapsed and if 700MW a year starts springing up around the country, there will likely be extra capacity floating around in the system that would be able to take up the slack even if every panel in the farm collapsed which is not likely.

• 
• +0
• 
• 

FACTORY, not power plant
written by Jason, July 11, 2008

This is not a solar power plant, it's only a FACTORY to create the PARTS needed to BUILD solar power plants elsewhere. Who cares if a parts factory is on a fault line.

• 
• +0
• 
• 

It's a *factory*
written by Rob, July 11, 2008

Goodness gracious, folks, let's read the article before venting about nuclear weapons and fault lines... it's a factory. And, *any* new manufacturing plant in the US is big news, and this is big news. Looking forward to more of these.

• 
• +0
• 
• 

The 'obstructionist environmentalist' is
written by jhw539, July 11, 2008

Almost all of the millions of acres open for grazing are open for use by solar. Yes, if you happen to stumble upon a community of ENDANGERED, that is rare and not often found, tortoises, the site may be put off limits. By definition this is quiet rare, although the blame-someone-else crowd sure does get a lot of mileage out of the two or three times it has happened . It's no different than checking for wetlands or Indian burial grounds in the midst of a city - another box to be checked that is rarely an obstacle. Real barriers to solar power are economics and technology, and both are falling quickly (oil market is tightening up and driving technological development forward nicely). The reality is that environmentalists (more often NIMBYs looking for a better name) are a noisy but quite rare barrier to this tech.

• 
• +0
• 
• 

Put them on private land
written by JSTDADD, July 11, 2008

There is absolutely no problem putting these things up on private land. Power plants and coal mines and such have to be built somewhere. I bet you could find enough closed factories in Detroit and closed steel mills in Pittsburg to put up one of these plants. There is enough sunshine in Northern cities to make it feasable, and they provide jobs to boot! We shouldn't worry about public lands not being available. For one square mile to produce so much nearly non-polluting power is a real boon. Is T. Boone Pickens watching?

• 
• +0
• 
• 

Australian tech rules
written by Fred, July 12, 2008

Great to see this Australian technology being used in the USA

• 
• +0
• 
• 

...
written by Cage, July 12, 2008

How can environmentalists oppose solar energy. Some of these groups are probably fronts owned by the oil companies.

• 
• +0
• 
• 

Really
written by kim, July 14, 2008

Yes, Austrailian techs rule and that is a good questions... how can environmentalists oppose solar energy, soon, they are going to have decide to fight for humankind on this earth instead of the rare tortoise...

• 
• +0
• 
• 

managing director
written by murad, December 14, 2008

pls, can you inform me about solar power capacity of 10 mw" be produce generator. we need for our textile spnnig project for 10 mw" POWER supply genaretor, my best regards.

• 
• +0
• 
• 

Interesting...
written by Paul Francis, March 18, 2009

It's interesting coming across this after a trillion or two has been spent on keeping failing companies open.

• 
• +0
• 
• 

Name

Email

Website

Title

Comment

smaller | bigger

Subscribe via email (registered users only)

Write the displayed characters

Add Comment