Solar-power upstart Ausra bags more dough

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February 21, 2008 6:02 AM PST

Solar-power upstart Ausra bags more dough

Posted by Martin LaMonica

NEW YORK--Being a hot solar start-up apparently requires a lot of money to keep the wind at your sails.

Ausra, which manufactures equipment for solar-thermal power plants, has secured $30 million in venture debt and is negotiating for an "add-on" round of $15 million from original investors Khosla Ventures and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, according to a company executive.

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Ausra has already signed a deal to build a 177-megawatt solar-power plant and supply electricity for Pacific Gas & Electric in California.

The company is in discussions for another 1,000 megawatts of production and has another 6,000 megawatts "in the pipeline," Davis said. He said electricity from its system is 30 percent to 40 percent cheaper than solar-photovoltaic plants and equivalent in price to natural-gas power plants with the 30 percent tax credit that renewable-energy projects get.

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