photo: Ausra When Green Wombat sat down for a chat with Ausra founder David Mills back in September 2007, he allowed that it was not unreasonable to expect the Silicon Valley solar startup to soon be building several massive megawatt solar power plants a year. The optimism was not unwarranted. After all, in the space [...]
Archive for the ‘Ausra’ Category
Ausra exits solar power plant building business
Posted in Ausra, BrightSource Energy, energy, enviro startups, environment, eSolar, First Solar, green financing, green startups, green tech, PG&E, renewable energy, San Diego Gas & Electric, solar energy, solar power plants, Stirling Energy Systems, SunPower, tagged Ausra, Bob Fishman, BrightSource Energy, financial crisis, layoffs, solar power plants on January 27, 2009 | 5 Comments »
Utilities turn to thin-film solar for big power
Posted in alternative energy, Ausra, BrightSource Energy, energy, environment, First Solar, green startups, green tech, OptiSolar, PG&E, San Diego Gas & Electric, solar energy, solar power plants, Southern California Edison, Stirling Energy Systems, SunPower, Suntech, tagged First Solar, PG&E, San Diego Gas & Electric, Sempra, solar thermal power plants, Southern California Edison, thin-film solar power plants on January 23, 2009 | 4 Comments »
With Big Solar thermal power plants bogged down in bureaucracy and facing environmental and financial hurdles, utilities are turning to smaller-scale thin-film solar stations that can be built in a matter of months. In late December, PG&E (PCG), for instance, signed a 20-year contract for electricity generated from a 10-megawatt thin-film solar power plant in [...]
Credit crisis shakes up solar land rush
Posted in alternative energy, Ausra, BrightSource Energy, energy, enviro startups, environment, First Solar, PG&E, renewable energy, solar energy, solar power plants, Solel, tagged Goldman Sachs, Iberdrola Renewables, Mojave Desert, PG&E, Solar land rush, Solel on November 13, 2008 | 5 Comments »
Photo: Todd Woody The land rush to stake prime sites in the Mojave Desert for solar power plants has moved east from California to a state that knows a thing or two about desert dreaming and scheming — Nevada. When Green Wombat’s story on the solar land rush was published in the July 21 issue of [...]
Credit crunch darkens solar’s prospects
Posted in alternative energy, Ausra, BrightSource Energy, climate change, energy, enviro startups, environment, GE Energy Financial Services, global warming, green startups, investment tax credit, PG&E, renewable energy, solar energy, solar power plants, tagged Ausra, BrightSource Energy, credit crunch, John Woolard, project financing, solar energy, solar power plants on October 24, 2008 | 7 Comments »
photo: Ausra The promise and peril of large-scale renewable energy was on display Thursday as California’s first solar power plant of the 21st century went online near Bakersfield. Under blue skies, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and other politicians heralded the five-megawatt Ausra solar station as the vanguard of a new era of alternative energy that would [...]
Solar power: Not just for electricity
Posted in alternative energy, Ausra, energy, environment, eSolar, green tech, solar energy, solar power plants, tagged Ausra, Carrizo Plains, enhanced oil recovery, eSolar, Kimberlina, Robert Fishman, solar power plant on October 23, 2008 | 3 Comments »
photos: Ausra Silicon Valley startup Ausra fired up a five-megawatt solar power plant outside Bakersfield Thursday, the first big solar station to go online in California in nearly two decades. Ausra has a 20-year contract with utility PG&E (PCG) for a 177-megawatt solar power plant to be built some 70 miles away on the Carrizo [...]
Congress sets stage for solar boom
Posted in alternative energy, Ausra, BrightSource Energy, energy, environment, First Solar, geothermal, PG&E, renewable energy, solar energy, solar power plants, Southern California Edison, wind power, tagged Ausra, BrightSource, geothermal, production tax credit, solar energy, solar investment tax credit, SunPower, Suntech, wind energy on October 3, 2008 | 25 Comments »
photo: eSolar After months of failed attempts in Congress to extend crucial renewable energy tax credits, the end-game came with lightning speed Friday afternoon: The House of Representatives passed the green incentives attached to the financial bailout package approved by the Senate Wednesday night and President Bush promptly signed the legislation into law. There were [...]
The hottest tech job in America: Wildlife biologist
Posted in alternative energy, Ausra, climate change, endangered species, energy, enviro startups, global warming, OptiSolar, PG&E, renewable energy, solar energy, solar power plants, Stirling Energy Systems, tagged Ausra, CH2MHill, endangered species, OptiSolar, PG&E, solar power plants, SunPower, URS, wildlife biologists on September 18, 2008 | 1 Comment »
photo: Todd Woody Green Wombat’s story in the new issue of Fortune magazine on the solar power plant-fueled boom in demand for wildlife biologists is now online here. The photo above of the blunt-nosed leopard lizard was taken at a state reserve in San Luis Obispo County. Or you can read the story below. The [...]
California’s game-changing solar deal
Posted in alternative energy, Ausra, endangered species, enviro startups, environment, First Solar, OptiSolar, PG&E, renewable energy, solar energy, solar power plants, Southern California Edison, SunPower, tagged Ausra, California Valley Solar Ranch, OptiSolar, PG&E, SunPower, Topaz Solar Farm on August 14, 2008 | 24 Comments »
photo: David Lena In a move that could alter the economics of the global solar industry, California utility PG&E on Thursday announced that it will buy 800 megawatts of electricity produced from two massive photovoltaic power plants to be built in San Luis Obsipo County on the state’s central coast. The 550-megawatt thin-film plant from [...]
The solar land rush
Posted in Abengoa Solar, alternative energy, Ausra, BrightSource Energy, climate change, endangered species, environment, global warming, OptiSolar, PG&E, renewable energy, solar energy, solar power plants, Solel, tagged Abengoa Solar, Ausra, BLM, BrightSource Energy, FPL, Goldman Sachs, Mojave Desert, PG&E, Solar land rush, Solel on July 15, 2008 | 2 Comments »
For those readers who missed Green Wombat’s feature story on the solar land rush in the July 21 issue of Fortune – available here at Fortune.com – I reprint below. The Southwest desert’s real estate boom From California to Arizona, demand for sites for solar power projects has ignited a land grab. By Todd Woody, [...]
Putting the big in Big Solar
Posted in alternative energy, Ausra, BrightSource Energy, endangered species, PG&E, renewable energy, solar energy, solar power plants, Solel, Southern California Edison, Stirling Energy Systems, tagged Ausra, BrightSource Energy, PG&E, San Diego Gas & Electric, Solel, Southern California Edison, Stirling Energy Systems, Stirling solar dish, SunCatcher on July 10, 2008 | 7 Comments »
Nearly three years ago, two Southern California utilities caused a stir when they announced deals to buy up to 1.75 gigawatts of electricity from massive solar farms to be built by Stirling Energy Systems of Phoenix. The company had developed a Stirling solar dish – a 38-foot-high, 40-foot-wide mirrored structure that looks like a big [...]
