Ausra develops and deploys utility-scale solar thermal power technology to
serve global electricity needs in a dependable, market-competitive, environmentally
responsible manner.
Ausra's zero-carbon power plants generate electricity at current market prices
for fossil-fired power without the emissions caused by burning fuels. Solar
concentrators boil water with focused sunlight, generating high-pressure steam
that drives conven-tional turbine generators. Low-cost thermal energy storage
systems now under development by Ausra will allow solar electric power to be
generated on demand, day and night.
Electric utilities in the U.S. and worldwide are under growing pressure to
expand their deliveries of clean, renewable power. The Ausra team brings
together expertise in solar energy research, engineering, manufacturing, power
project development and finance to address this need. The company designs,
manufactures and deploys low-cost, large-scale, solar electric power stations,
selling electric power at prices competitive with today's fossil-fired generation.
Ausra's core technology, the Compact Linear Fresnel Reflector (CLFR) solar
collector and steam generation system, was originally conceived in the early
1990s at Sydney University. It was first commercialized by Solar Heat and
Power Pty Ltd. in 2004 in Australia and is now being refined and built at large
scale by Ausra around the world.
CLFR technology has significant advantages in cost, scalability and emissions
profile. Ausra develops large-scale power projects incorporating CLFR solar
fields, and helps utilities generate clean energy for millions of customers.
Innovation in Action
• Research and Development: Ausra's core group of chemists, physicists and
engineers are working on optics, coatings, materials and manufacturing
processes to improve the performance and reduce the cost of solar collector
systems, thermal energy storage systems and power plant cooling systems.
Their ongoing refinements to Ausra's technology will continue to reduce costs
and extend Ausra's leadership in these fields.
• Engineering: Ausra's engineering managers and engineers come from a
variety of disciplines across the electric power industry. The team optimizes
Ausra's existing technologies for production, and brings new technologies
from R&D into volume manufacturing. Ausra partners with leading consulting
engineering firms to test and verify energy production and lifecycle
performance of its plants.
• Manufacturing: Ausra's approach to solar plant production emphasizes manufacturing
facilities located near power plants, low-cost commodity materials
(steel, glass and concrete), and mass produced components.
Ausra At-a-Glance
Headquarters
2585 E. Bayshore Rd.
Palo Alto, CA 94303
www.ausra.com
Founded 2006
Private; investors Khosla Ventures
and Kleiner
Perkins Caufield & Byers
First 1 MW Solar Field Installation,
2004
A 180-MW solar power plant uses
one square mile of land.
The U.S. can be permanently
energy independent and
eliminate half its greenhouse
emissions using a land area
smaller than 92x92 miles, without
increased electric power prices.
Corporate Overview
Ausra, Inc.
2585 East Bayshore Rd.
Palo Alto, CA 94303
phone: 650.424.9300
fax: 650.494.3893
url: www.ausra.com
Ausra operates its own production facilities for the manufacture of its solar
collectors to deliver the highest performance at lowest possible system costs.
• Project Management: Ausra draws experts from many sectors of the energy
industry to manage land permits, project finance and power purchase
agreements. The team has a strong track record of success with multiple
generations of technologies.
Solar Thermal Electric Power is Energy Independence and Security
We have a secure source of electric power with guaranteed stable prices, no
emissions, and the ability to scale to meet all our needs. With a 20-year track
record of over 99 percent availability, solar thermal electric power has proven
to be a dependable source of electric power for America's growing energy
needs. Solar power is entirely domestically produced, is protected against fuel
price and availability fluctuations, and is secure against future costs of carbon
emissions.
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.
Using Ausra's current solar technologies, all U.S. electric power, day and
night, can be generated using a land area smaller than 92 by 92 miles.
Ausra's business will benefit local economies by bringing "green collar"
manufacturing and operating jobs to rural communities. By delivering clean,
reliable energy at market-competitive prices, Ausra will help meet America's
growing needs for climate-friendly power while maintaining consumerfriendly
prices.
Ausra and the Ausra logo are trademarks of Ausra, Inc. © 2007 Ausra, Inc. All rights
reserved. Printed in the USA with recycled materials.
ausra
Leadership Team
Dr. David Mills, Founder, Chairman and Chief Scientific Officer
Mills is known worldwide for pioneering Compact Linear Fresnel Reflector (CLFR)
technology and for his work in non-imaging optics, solar thermal energy, and PV
systems over 32 years. His lab at the University of Sydney developed and licensed the
evacuated-tube solar water heater technology, which comprises 60 percent of the world's
solar collectors and is used widely throughout China for distribution of low cost domestic
hot water. Mills originated and ran the research program that in 1991, with colleague Dr.
Q-C. Zhang, developed the most advanced sputtered double cermet selective absorber
coating, which is now used in evacuated tube receivers by China's largest solar company,
Himin. He developed or co-developed other commercial systems including the Prism
solar concentrator (Sol X) and the "S" evacuated tube reflecting system (Solahart).
A solar sterilizer design he originated won a World Health Organization award in 2002,
and he was a finalist in the 2002 World Technology Awards for Energy.
Mills is a former president of the International Solar Energy Society (ISES) and
served as inaugural chair of the International Solar Cities Initiative (ISCI). While at
ISES, he chaired the International Performance Measurement and Verification Protocol
for Renewable Energy in partnership with the U.S. Department of Energy. Mills has
published and refereed numerous academic reports and articles on solar energy in such
publications as The Journal of Solar Energy and Applied Optics. At Ausra he continues
to personally innovate while coordinating the highly talented Ausra R&D team and
steering the direction of the company as chairman of the board.
Robert E. Fishman, President and CEO,
Fishman brings to Ausra more than 30 years of experience in large scale power
projects. Prior to Ausra, he managed Calpine's 25,000-megawatt portfolio of clean,
efficient and reliable natural gas-fired and geothermal power plants. He also managed
Calpine's development and construction programs, engineering, and safety, health and
environmental activities. Before joining Calpine in 2001, Fishman was president of PB
Power, Inc. where he managed power project engineering services for more than 6,000
megawatts of gas-turbine and renewable energy projects. A former chief engineer in
the U.S. Navy, Fishman holds a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from the
U.S. Naval Academy, a master's and engineer's degree in mechanical engineering from
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a doctorate in mechanical engineering from
the University of Maryland. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Century
Aluminum Company.
Glen Davis, Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer
Davis is recognized in the power industry as an expert in the commercial aspects
of power project development, particularly the negotiation of power purchase
agreements and project finance structures. Before Ausra, Davis was a co-founder
and managing member of Agile Energy LLC, a consultancy founded to advise a variety
of clients in the commercial aspects of renewable and fossil-fired project development.
Prior to Agile he worked at The AES Corp. for 18 years, where he led many developments,
acquisition and asset sale transactions, both in the U.S. and abroad. For five years
he was responsible for leading all of AES' new business initiatives in the western United
States and Canada. Davis manages commercial agreements and structured finance for
Ausra projects.
Executive Biographies
Robert Morgan, Executive Vice President and Chief Development Officer
Morgan's thorough understanding of energy markets and the development process
is instrumental to the commercialization of Ausra's CLFR technology. He joined
Ausra from Agile Energy LLC, where he was a co-founder and managing member,
assisting a variety of clients in the commercial aspects of renewable and fossil-fired
project development. Prior to Agile he worked for 14 years at The AES Corp., a world
leader in electric power generation. Morgan led several international power business
units, developed numerous large "greenfield" power generation projects, and
participated in several mergers and acquisitions. At Ausra, Morgan oversees power
project strategy, siting, permitting, and delivery. Morgan received a bachelor's degree
in economics and a master's degree in engineering economic systems from Stanford
University in 1988.
John O' Donnell , Executive Vice President
O'Donnell counts more than 20 years of experience leading successful startup
ventures. From 1984 through 2006, he founded and ran three technology companies
in supercomputers and digital image and video processing. His career began at the
U.S. Department of Energy's Princeton University Plasma Physics Laboratory. He
holds eight patents in a wide range of technology fields. Since mid-2006, O'Donnell
has been the primary force bringing Solar Heat and Power's technology to the United
States, securing Ausra's venture capital funding and recruiting new members to the
senior management team.
Jim Barnhart, Vice President, Global Manufacturing
Barnhart brings to Ausra 25 years of global operations experience. Prior to Ausra
he led West Coast Pharmaceutical Operations for Johnson & Johnson where he
successfully implemented a regional operating model across Facilities Maintenance
and Engineering, Capital Project Management, Facilities Planning, Business Services,
Site Security, and Environmental, Health & Safety for three of J&J's operating
companies. He previously held increasingly responsible positions with Applied
Materials, Inc. in semiconductor capital equipment manufacturing, engineering,
product management/marketing, global service business general management,
business group operations, global real estate & facilities, corporate business continuity
planning, and intellectual property management. A former officer in the United States
Navy's submarine force, Barnhart led several nuclear engineering divisions and served
as Sonar Officer. Barnhart earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from
Washington State University and a master's degree in business administration from the
University of California at Berkeley.
David DeGraaff , Vice President of Engineering
DeGraaff is a mechanical engineer who has conducted research in a wide variety of
energy-related fields. While serving on the Stanford University faculty, he helped
General Electric Aircraft Engines redesign the cooling of turbine blades in the hightemperature
stages of jet engines. Most recently he co-founded CriticalPoint Software,
a venture-funded start-up search software company, and spent several years leading
product management for a major product line at Intuit, a $2 billion software company.
He received his doctorate in mechanical engineering at Stanford University, where he
studied heat transfer, fluid mechanics and the turbulent boundary layer in high speed
flows using novel laser optical methods. He developed a fundamentally new theory of
boundary layer development which is foundational for other major findings in the field.
As the vice president of engineering, DeGraaff leads a talented team to prepare Ausra's
core solar technology for large-scale deployment.
2
Perry H. Fontana, QEP, Vice President, Projects:
Fontana brings extensive experience in the permitting and development of power
generation facilities to Ausra. Prior to coming to Ausra, Fontana spent 30 years with
URS Corporation, a major global engineering and consulting firm, where he served as
vice president in the Electric Power Services business line, which accounts for nearly
$1 billion dollars in annual sales. During his tenure at URS, Fontana was responsible
for site selection and environmental permitting of over 10,000 Mw of generation
facilities throughout the southwest U.S. and internationally. He has also served as
an advisor to several multilateral lending institutions including the World Bank and
InterAmerican Development Bank. At Ausra, Fontana is responsible for the
development and permitting of Ausra's power generation facilities.
David Hawkins, Vice President, Power Engineering
Hawkins is a mechanical engineer with more than 25 years experience working in power
plant engineering with companies such as Alstom, Burns and Roe and WorleyParsons.
With a Bachelor of Technology degree from Loughborough University, his career spans
virtually every power generation technology and includes the development, specification
and design of projects in Europe, North America, Australia, Asia and the Middle East.
Before joining Ausra, Hawkins worked for Mott MacDonald undertaking due diligence
of power plant assets, renewable generation technologies and completed the technical
specification and negotiation of an 800 MW combined cycle plant project in the Netherlands.
As Ausra's vice president of power engineering, Hawkins now leads the team
designing conventional steam power plant to match Ausra's core solar technology for
large-scale deployment.
Eric Lundberg, Vice President, Finance
Prior to joining Ausra, Lundberg served as director of revenue at Harland Financial Solutions
in Portland, Ore overseeing billing operations and revenue recognition. He worked
for PacifiCorp, an electric utility based in Portland, responding to intervener inquiries
during rate cases, and developing the final model for the MidAmerican acquisition of
PacifiCorp. For six years he served as chief financial officer on several projects with The
AES Corp., including operations in southern California and throughout Latin America.
At AES, Lundberg managed debt financing, debt conversion, Sarbanes Oxley policies
and due diligence for acquisitions. He began his career at Deloitte & Touché, working in
the attest and internal audit services group. Lundberg is a certified public accountant.
At Ausra he is responsible for the oversight of financial operations, revenue recognition,
reporting and compliance.
Sam McIntosh, Vice President, Construction
McIntosh brings over 25 years of construction experience to Ausra including a thorough
understanding of power plant design and construction execution practices. Sam has
honed his "hands on" team leadership style through the design and construction effort of
over 2500 MW of power plants. While at Calpine he helped to develop, organize, process,
and refine one of the largest power plant build out efforts in the country while achieving
new standards for safety, quality, cost and schedule control. With a background in
nuclear and fossil fueled power plant operations, a bachelor's degree in engineering from
Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo and an M.B.A. from Pepperdine, Sam is well suited to develop
and lead the Ausra construction team effort as they implement a utility scale solar thermal
power plant construction program that is World Class.
3
Vice President, Manufacturing: David McKay
McKay has 30 years of manufacturing experience on a wide variety of projects.
McKay joined Solar Heat and Power in 2005 as the company's head of manufacturing
and transitioned to Ausra and the United States when Solar Heat and
Power became Ausra. Prior to joining Solar Heat and Power, McKay served as a
project manager for Grand Cruiser RV, creating a new process for building and
marketing recreational vehicles, bringing a new product to market in record
time. Before Grand Cruiser RV, he manage a conversion project on Australian
Naval assault ships, supervised rail carriage construction at high volume, and
oversaw the production of GE Locomotive components. As the vice president of
manufacturing, McKay develops and oversees Ausra's manufacturing operations
in the United States.
Vice President, Intellectual Property: Mark Schmidt
Schmidt came to Ausra from Morrison & Foerster LLP in Palo Alto, Calif., where
he co-founded a clean technology intellectual property practice group. His practice
at Morrison & Foerster included strategic patent counseling, patent prosecution
and investor-side intellectual property due diligence in a wide range of technology
areas including solar energy, alternative fuel, energy storage and water purification
technologies. Schmidt entered patent practice in 1999 as a patent agent with
Skjerven Morrill MacPherson LLP in San Jose, Calif. Schmidt holds a bachelor's
degree in chemistry from Carleton College and a doctorate in physical chemistry
from the University of Chicago. He received his J.D. from the University of
California Hastings College of Law. He serves as Ausra's chief legal counsel and
manages the company's intellectual property.
Steve Shevick, Interim Chief Financial Officer
Prior to joining Ausra, Shevick was the chief financial officer of Wyse International,
Inc., a private-equity backed company that designs and markets thin computing
hardware and software. Prior to Wyse, Shevick spent ten years at Synopsys, Inc.
in leadership positions in both the finance and legal departments, serving as the
chief financial officer for the last three years. At Synopsys, Shevick led the company's
efforts in over a dozen mergers and acquisitions, managed relationships
with investors, analysts and bankers, and prepared the company for compliance
with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act requirements. Prior to joining Synopsys, Mr. Shevick
was a lawyer in the New York, Hong Kong and Washington, D.C. offices of Cleary,
Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton, where his practice focused on international securities
transactions, mergers and acquisitions and technology licensing. Shevick manages
the corporate finance function at Ausra.
Peter Le Lièvre, Founder
Le Lièvre is an MBA and career Industrial Designer specializing in both the cutting
edge technical development and financing of new ventures.
Le Lièvre has 20 years experience in both technical and executive roles in a variety
of global high technology engineering and manufacturing businesses. Prior to
Ausra, Le Lièvre spent 10 years at Fairgill Investments with technical and global
business development roles in fast wave piercing ferries and an innovative OEM
automotive converter subsequently listed on the AIM market at London Stock
Exchange. Le Lièvre co-founded Solar Heat and Power in 2002. He established
the least cost and innovative engineering design which underpins the CLFR
technology and also guided the firm to financial stability. Ausra was subsequently
founded in 2007 following one of the largest 'A' Rounds in Silicon Valley history.
Le Lièvre continues to apply his unique set of business and technical skills to help
build Ausra such that its least cost CLFR technology is supported by best practice
in project development, financing, operations and management. 4
Ausra, Inc.
2585 East Bayshore Rd.
Palo Alto, CA 94303
phone: 650.424.9300
fax: 650.494.3893
url: www.ausra.com
Prof. Graham L. Morrison, Founder and Vice President of Research & Development
Morrison brings decades of experience in solar energy technology and research.
He is a driving force in designing, testing and proving Compact Linear Fresnel
Reflector (CLFR) technology, which is critical for Ausra to continue to innovate. He
was the inaugural director of the Solar & Thermal Energy Laboratory at the University
of New South Wales, Australia's premier solar testing laboratory. In 1994, he received
Australia's National Energy Innovation Award for outstanding achievement in R&D for
energy efficiency. Morrison has acted as a consultant to the United Nations (UNDP) on
the development of solar energy in India and China, and has published more than 250
articles on solar power in research publications such as Energy Conversion and Management,
the International Journal of Energy Research and Solar Energy. Morrison completed
a PhD in fluid mechanics at The University of Melbourne in 1971, and has held a
number of visiting professorial and research scientist positions at the University of New
South Wales, the University of Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania State University.
Key Investor and Board Member: Vinod Khosla, Khosla Ventures
Vinod Khosla was a co-founder of Daisy Systems and founding Chief Executive Officer of
Sun Microsystems where he pioneered open systems and commercial RISC processors.
Vinod serves on the boards of Ausra, eASIC, Spatial Photonics, and Xsigo.
Sun was funded by Kleiner Perkins and in 1986 Vinod switched sides and joined
Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers (KPCB). In 2004, driven by the need for flexibility
and a desire to be more experimental, to fund sometimes imprudent "science experiments",
and to take on both "for profit" and for "social impact" ventures, he formed
Khosla Ventures. Khosla Ventures focuses on both traditional venture capital technology
investments and clean technology ventures. Social ventures include affordable housing,
microfinance among others.
Vinod holds a bachelor of technology degree in electrical engineering from the Indian
Institute of Technology in New Delhi, a master's degree in biomedical engineering from
Carnegie Mellon University and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Key Investor and Board Member: Ray Lane, Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers
Lane is a Managing Partner at Kleiner, Perkins Caufield & Byers, focused on helping
entrepreneurs with technological and market insight, organizational development, team
building, selling and managing growth. Since joining KPCB, Lane has sponsored several
investments for the firm in enterprise and consumer technology, as well as clean and
alternative energy. Before joining KPCB, Lane was President and Chief Operating Officer
of Oracle Corporation, the second-largest software company in the world and the leading
enterprise software and services company. During his eight-year tenure, Oracle exhibited
phenomenal revenue growth from approximately $1 billion in 1992 to over $10 billion.
Lane led
Oracle's business expansion beyond its core database technology into enterprise applications
and professional services.
ausra
Frequently Asked Questions
What does Ausra do?
Ausra develops and deploys utility scale solar technologies to serve global
electricity needs in a dependable, market competitive, environmentally
responsible manner. Ausra designs, manufactures and builds large scale
solar electric power stations.
What does "Ausra" mean?
We feel that our company is part of the dawn of a new energy age that will
employ our oldest energy source. Ausra was the Lithuanian goddess of the
dawn, descended from the extremely ancient Indo-European goddess of
the sunrise "Hausos" or "Ausus." The word survives in modern Lithuanian
meaning "dawn". The root also appears in many other forms, including
the Greek Eos "dawn," the Latin "aurora," the Sanskrit "ushas." The letters
"AUS" suggest "from the east" but for us they reflect the Australian
heritage of our technology. The word also contains "US," alluding to our
new headquarters in the United States. Finally, "RA" is the earlier version
of the Egyptian sun god.
What is Ausra's technology?
Ausra's zero-carbon power plants generate electricity by driving steam
turbines with sunshine. Solar concentrators boil water with focused
sunlight, generating high-pressure steam which drives conventional
turbine generators. Ausra's core technology, the Compact Linear Fresnel
Reflector (CLFR) solar collector and steam generation system, was
originally conceived in the early 1990s by Ausra's founders in Australia.
Can solar power plants provide power at night?
Solar thermal power plants gather the sun's energy as heat. Solar
thermal power projects now online and in construction in Europe include
heat storage units which can store enough power for 1 to 20 hours of
operation. 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.
Ausra is developing plants that will be able to store energy during
daylight hours and generate power as needed. When available, this
flexibility will make Ausra's power plants an important potential
contributor to peak, shoulder and base electricity loads.
Who are Ausra's customers?
Ausra's customers are electric utilities and other purchasers of wholesale
power located in the U.S. and around the world. The company's first customer
was Macquarie Generation, the largest power producer in Australia.
Ausra is currently in negotiations for power projects in the U.S. and Europe.
Frequently Asked
Questions
Where are Ausra's power plants located? How many plants does Ausra plan
to build?
Solar thermal electric power can be generated in about half the area of the
continental United States. Some of the best locations for solar power plants
are in the western and southwestern states. Ausra is ready to scale and
deliver power plants where our customers want them. 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.
What is the scale of plants planned?
Ausra is developing a generation of plants in the 100-500 MW class.
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