Ausra Inc., a developer of utility-scale solar thermal power, is building the first U.S. manufacturing plant for solar thermal power systems in Las Vegas. The 130,000 square-foot, automated manufacturing and distribution center will produce the reflectors, towers, absorber tubes and other key components of the company's solar thermal power plants.
‘Ausra can fill four square miles with solar collectors every year from this one factory,’ says Bob Fishman, the company's president and CEO of Ausra. ‘With market-priced solar power, we are entering the 'Solar Decade,' in which massive construction of solar plants will take place. We are investing now in the systems and capacity to serve that need.’
In November, Ausra and California utility PG&E announced a power purchase agreement for a one-square-mile, 177 MW power plant to be built in central California. Ausra's new Las Vegas facility will manufacture the solar field equipment for the PG&E project and for other power projects throughout the American Southwest.
