Big Arnie unveils ray of sunshine

Herald Sun
Thursday 30/10/2008 Page: 78

WHAT began to take shape in a Sydney back yard about four years ago culminated in a commissioning ceremony for a solar thermal plant in California this week by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. The plant was built by Australian solar company Ausra, using cutting edge technology developed by Sydney University Professor David Mills. It will power 3500 homes in the central California town of Kimberlina. Professor Mills started Ausra in 2002 as Solar Heat and Power when he proposed a solar thermal plant to power the generators for the giant coal-fired Liddell Power Station in the Hunter Valley.

With the technology proven, Liddell became the first - and for now the only - hybrid solar/coal power station in the world, according to Ausra's Melbourne-based CEO and president Bob Matthews. Professor Mills then took his company to California where it attracted the two top venture capitalists in the world and morphed into Ausra Inc, leading to this week's ceremony with Governor Schwarzenegger. "This week was significant for two reasons," Mr Matthews said. "The first is that this is the first solar thermal plant built in California in the past 20 years. The second is that while solar thermal technology has been around since the early 1980s, ours is the next generation. It is more cost effective, more feasible.

"Solar thermal has been a bit of a sleeper. For whatever reason it didn't get a guernsey back in the oil shock of the 1980s, but industry now realises that it has the capacity to be highly scaleable, it can produce thousands of megawatts of power, rather than just hundreds. "It has the capacity to power cities. Our technology is the one. It's the 'here and now technology', as the governor said." solar thermal differs from photovoltaic solar panels, which convert light from the sun into electricity and are often seen mounted on home rooftops.

With Ausra's solar thermal technology, fields of mirrors focus the sun's heat on tubes of water to produce steam that drives turbines, generating clean, reliable electricity and steam for industrial use. The Kimberlina project continues Governor Schwarzenegger's pursuit of renewable power for California. "This next generation solar energy plant is evidence that reliable, renewable and pollution-free technology is here to stay, and it will lead to more homes and businesses powered by sunshine," he said. "It will also generate new jobs as California continues to pioneer clean-tech industry."