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March 28, 2024

Utilities Column:

Ausra tweaks solar strategy, which may benefit Las Vegas plant

Updated Monday, Feb. 23, 2009 | 11:59 a.m.

Beyond the Sun

Ausra, the California-based solar thermal energy developer with a manufacturing base in Las Vegas, is dropping plans for its own large-scale solar plants, the company announced in a “clarification” of its business strategy that was issued Jan. 30.

In the statement the company says it “is strategically positioning itself to achieve its goals and serve its customers by focusing on being a technology and equipment supplier rather than an independent power developer and owner.”

The change — which the company wishes to have described as an “evolution” — has meant personnel realignments. Media sources in California are reporting the company has laid off 12 people, or 10 percent of its staff, as part of the shift.

No Ausra representative was willing to talk on the record about the change, but the company said the move would have little effect on the Las Vegas plant.

But it is logical that if this change in strategy is effective, it could lead to increased activity at the plant, which can employ up to 50 people.

As part of its realignment, Ausra is expanding its product offering to include medium-sized (50 megawatt equivalent) solar steam generating systems for use in food processors and enhanced oil recovery firms, as well as for power booster systems that deliver steam into existing fossil-fueled power plants.

“Ausra can quickly ramp up and install these low-cost projects as early as 2009 or 2010, while large power projects can take three to four years,” the company’s statement said. “For Ausra, this will allow the company to deploy its technology and generate revenue immediately, while the larger projects are obtaining permits and getting transmission access.”

This increased focus on manufacturing and equipment supply is a safer route for the company. It frees Ausra from the financial uncertainties of developing its own solar plants during a time when financing is almost nonexistent and solar energy sites anticipate continued delays from the Bureau of Land Management and more solar projects face lawsuits from environmentalists.

Ausra maintains that the latest announcement is really no change at all. But despite the posturing, this indeed is a major change for the company.

When Ausra launched its flagship Las Vegas manufacturing facility last spring, company executives said they were actively scouring the Southwest for attractive solar development sites.

The company said it was lining up solar projects across Southern California, Nevada and Arizona that were expected to piggyback on one another.

The company’s stated goal was to install a gigawatt of power each year over 10 to 20 years.

The company already has a demonstration plant online in Bakersfield, Calif., and the company has a contract with a California utility to build a 177-megawatt solar power site near San Luis Obispo, Calif.

Ausra also pledged a year ago to build the least-expensive solar energy plants in the world — plants that would eventually be cheaper than natural gas and coal plants, even without federal tax incentives.

The company quickly backtracked from those statements.

This story has been corrected. An earlier version of this story had the wrong number of people who had been laid off.

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