[tt] Compact Linear Fresnel Reflector Solar Power System Lower Cost Than Parabolic Trough Sytems, Ready Now

[Brian Atkins]

(apparently plenty of life in the steam-based non-silicon style of solar power)

http://thefraserdomain.typepad.com/energy/2007/09/on-sept-10-ausr.html

On Sept 10, Ausra Inc., the developer of utility-scale solar thermal power 
technology, announced that it has secured more than $40 million in funding from 
Silicon Valley venture capital firms Khosla Ventures and Kleiner, Perkins, 
Caufield & Byers (KPCB).

Ausra's power plants drive steam turbines with sunshine. Locally manufactured 
solar concentrators made of steel and glass focus sunlight to boil water, 
generating high-pressure steam that drives conventional turbine generators. New 
thermal energy storage systems using pressurized water and low cost materials 
will provide for on-demand generation day and night. Ausra's core technology, 
the Compact Linear Fresnel Reflector (CLFR) solar steam generation system, was 
originally conceived in the early 1990s by founder David Mills while at Sydney 
University. Mills later worked with Graham Morrison to develop the idea between 
1995 and 2001.

Austra's innovation is that it uses commodity flat mirrors that sit low to the 
ground. The refectors concentrate sunlight on water-filled pipes that hang over 
the mirrors. As the water is heated up to 545 degrees fahrenheit (285 celsius) 
the resulting steam drives a standard turbine.

     "We had been working on a wide range of alternatives and kept finding that 
simpler, cheaper approaches outperformed higher-temperature, more sophisticated 
designs," says Ausra Chairman David Mills.

The company claims that:

     CLFR technology has significant advantages in cost, scalability and 
emissions profile.

     Utility scale solar technology has traditionally been parabolic trough, but 
Ausra's less complex flat mirrors are much less costly.

     Ausra's innovations in collector design dramatically reduce the cost of 
solar thermal generation equipment and bring solar power to prices directly 
competitive with fossil fuel power.

     It can generate electricity for 10 cents/kWh now, under 8 cents/kWh in 3 yrs.

Ausra's zero-carbon power plants generate electricity at current market prices 
for fossil-fired power without the emissions caused by burning fuels. Low-cost 
thermal energy storage systems now under development by Ausra will allow solar 
electric power to be generated on demand, day and night.

Ausra's projects will include energy storage using hot water and other low-cost 
materials. Thermal energy storage puts the storage before the generator—heat is 
stored, not electric power. Storing heat is simpler, cheaper, and substantially 
more efficient than storing electric power. Thermal energy storage makes solar a 
firm, dispatchable resource.

In 2002, Mills and Morrison founded Solar Heat and Power Pty Ltd. in partnership 
with Ausra CEO Peter Le Lièvre, and SHP built a successful trial 1 megawatt 
system in 2004 for Macquarie Generation in New South Wales. A following 38 
megawatt CLFR solar field is expected to be complete by 2009.

The company currently has a power project in the testing and commissioning phase 
in Australia, a project breaking ground this year in Portugal and a project in 
the permitting phase in central California. A significant number of large 
projects are being negotiated in other locations.

Ausra is developing a generation of plants in the 100-500 MW class.

Ausra is the successor company to Solar Heat & Power from Australia, in business 
since 2002.

-- 
Brian Atkins
Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence
http://www.singinst.org/