New solar plant opens in Bakersfield, CA, test-run for much bigger plant
A new solar energy plant opened near Bakersfield, CA yesterday. While the plant itself is relatively small– it can generate 5 MW of electricity, which is enough for just under 4,000 homes, it is a trial run for a much larger plant slated to begin construction in Central California next year.
Interestingly, the company behind these plants is a Palo Alto starup called Ausra. Ausra was founded in 2006 and is backed by Silicon Valley venture capital, including Khosla Ventures and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. Ausra’s CEO indicated that they built this Bakersfield plant as a trial run to “demonstrate to our customers and our investors that we could do what we said we could do.”
Their next plant will be in the Carrizo Plain in San Luis Obispo County and is going to produce 177 MW. Ausra uses solar thermal technology (where water is super heated by solar panels and then used to move a turbine) rather than photovoltaic technology, where the panels transform the sun’s rays directly into electricity.
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