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Solar-Thermal Company Ausra Raises $40M

The solar-thermal industry took another step forward last week when Ausra Inc. announced it has secured more than $40 million in funding to build and operate utility-scale power plants. The announcement is the latest example that solar-thermal is gaining traction as a major solar technology. Currently, nine solar-thermal (or concentrating) power plants in California’s Mojave dessert supply 350 megawatts of electricity annually. But that amount stands to increase more than four fold when planned projects come on line, including Southern California Edison’s 500-MW Stirling solar dish contract, Pacific Gas & Electric’s 553-MW deal with Solel and a 400-MW facility in the planning stages by BrightSource Energy. Ausra, located in Palo Alto, California, is backed by Silicon Valley venture capital firms Khosla Ventures and Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers (KPCB). The company claims its thermal energy storage systems have an edge because they can provide on-demand power generation during both day and night. Moreover, it claims it can do so at just 10 cents per kilowatt-hour, which would be on par with the price of electricity from burning natural gas in California, if the state’s Public Utilities Commission chooses to impose a cost for CO2 emissions. At this price, Ausra claims […]

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SOLON AG to Build 44Mw Solar Plant

SOLON AG has received a contract to develop and construct a 44 MW solar power project in Spain by Scan Energy A/S of Denmark. The turnkey project will be constructed in Ayora in the Spanish province of Valencia. The start of construction is planned for the second half of 2008. The new facility will have a production capacity of 60 million kWh. The commissioning will be carried out by SOLON Solar Investments GmbH, a subsidiary of SOLON AG located in Freiburg, Germany that specializes in planning large-scale solar power plant projects for financial investors. Website: http://www.solonag.de     

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Cap-and-Trade System Favored, But Polluters Must Pay

Capping emissions and making polluters pay for putting global warming emissions into the atmosphere is the most economically efficient and fair approach to cutting global warming pollution nationwide, according to a report by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (U.S. PIRG). “Cleaner, Cheaper, Smarter: The Case for Auctioning Pollution Allowances in a Global Warming Cap-and-Trade Program” recommends that the United States and any state or region contemplating a cap-and-trade program sell 100 percent of pollution permits ­ called “allowances” ­ at an auction as opposed to giving them to emitters for free. U.S. PIRG also released a statement signed by more than 100 organizations and individuals, including former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, the Consumer Federation of America, MoveOn.org, and OXFAM, calling for a 100 percent auction. “Giving away pollution allowances absolves polluters of their responsibility and even provides some polluters with a new opportunity to profit,” said Tony Dutzik, Senior Policy Analyst for the Frontier Group and an author of the report. “Auctioning allowances, on the other hand, ensures that all polluters pay based on the amount of pollution they release.” The report recommends that revenues from the auction be used to: Support clean energy technological development, including research and […]

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Live the Good Life in a Green Mansion

URL: http://money.cnn.com/2007/08/30/lifestyle/green_mansions/index.htm?postversion=2007091414 Website: http://money.cnn.com/2007/08/30/lifestyle/green_mansions/index.htm?postversion=2007091414     

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